Tired of chalking yet? Too bad. The war continues. We break down the madness from every angle • Rebels or Empire? • Keene city budget public hearing • Pumpkin fest lobbyists • What the hell is tax increment financing? • Doom movie review • James and Garret join • Show notes at: BlackSheepRising.org
It’s budget time and of course it’s going up again. Just like last year. And the year before. Surprisingly, the Parking Fund is going down $200,000 even though the city collected $80,000 less than it had planned on (no doubt thanks to Robin Hood and his merry misfits). Some have been quick to applaud the city bureaucrats in this reduction, but wait. The TIF tax portion went up $200,000. What the hell is a TIF tax? If all you saw was “tax” and you already knew it was something bad, then you would be correct. Here is a brief explanation in my LTE to the Keene Sentinel:
Tax Increment Financing is not “free money”
Who pays for Keene’s downtown parking?
If you were to ask city management, they would tell you it’s paid for through rentals, fees and fines. If you then asked them if the taxpayers paid into the parking fund as well, they would most likely tell you “no.”
This is a flat-out mistruth. Let me explain. This year, $1 million (47 percent) of the $2.2 million proposed parking budget will come from the city’s Tax Increment Finance (TIF) tax pool. This is a huge increase from $840,000 (34 percent) last year.
The TIF tax pool is generated from Keene’s two developmental districts and the revenue collected can only be spent in those districts. It cannot be spent elsewhere. The idea is the money will be put aside and used to improve the assessed value of these properties and therefore increase the potential tax revenue over time because, according to social engineer Mayor Lane, development in these areas would never happen unless they had a little help from the taxpayers. This is a ridiculous notion.
One of the biggest problems with TIF is how the money is spent. Right now, almost half of Keene’s TIF revenue goes to the parking fund. The other half is spent mostly on principal and interest. We’re talking about $2.4 million that could be going directly to the general fund to pay for city services, which would ultimately help lower the already unsustainable tax rate.
But instead it gets spent on snow removal.
Chalk Wars • Protesting Memorial day “End the wars” • Violence is violence • Sriracha wins! • 10 genres you either love or despise • Jay joins • Show notes, audio, and archives at: BlackSheepRising.org
Keene’s very own Public access television station, Cheshire TV, which hosts a wide array of local programs such as Black Sheep Rising , AKPF#1, and others has come under attack by city officials. CTV, which operates partly off of franchise fees collected from cable provider Time Warner has recently adopted a new program in which it will begin charging an operating fee to any producers requiring assistance with their programs. Subsequently, programs produced by city bureaucrats, Kendall Lane, Chris Coats and Kris Roberts who have refused to pay the fee, have ceased production. Having co-produce 34 episodes of ShireTV, I can tell you airing a simple half hour television program in studio requires a crew to operate and hours of setup and tear-down. I am not at all surprised that station manager, Lee Perkins, came to this decision. This move by CTV may also be in part due to the City of Keene confiscating 9% of the franchise fee for its own use. Ongoing attempts by CTV to claim this portion have been rejected by city management.
Now in retaliation city mayor Kendal Lane in an interview on WKBK has hinted the city may keep all the franchise revenue and hire their “own people” to cover city council meeting and such. Cheshire TV would be left to fend for itself. I have no doubt the newly created department would also cover shows produced by city officials and friends, because that’s how the cronies roll.
Darryl witnesses bizarre cop circles in Fla • Uploading one’s raw video to the cloud • Don’t know where Ukraine is? You probably want to bomb it. • Eric adopts some chickens • Cartoon bulls with udders? • SFK!!! plans to improve the community. Without help from the state • Star Trek money • 20 things guys do that woman probably don’t know about • Freerock joins • Show notes, archives, and audio at BlackSheepRock.org
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