By PETER HUSSMANN
A new economic development tool being sought by landowners adjacent to the Iowa Speedway is being panned as bad public policy that would do little more than transfer funds from local taxpayers into the hands of the developers promoting the legislation, a new report from an Iowa public policy group claims.
On Monday, the Iowa Fiscal Partnership issued a "policy brief" concerning House File 2480, the bill being pushed by Trilogy Raceway Development as a necessary component in its ability to bring project growth to the area surrounding the Iowa Speedway.
The legislation would allow cities and counties to develop consumption tax bonding districts where the new sales taxes generated in the district are kept by the municipality creating the district and used to pay for a municipality's financial involvement in bringing the developments forward.
Trilogy, which owns 66 acres adjacent to the track, says the new law would allow for an array of project development possibilities near the Iowa Speedway and says it stands ready to move forward at the Newton site if the legislation is enacted.
However, Peter S. Fisher, a professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Iowa and author of the report, says the measure would encourage unneeded subsidies for retail development, undermines voter approval by not allowing for a referendum vote by a municipality issuing bonds under the program and allows cities to circumvent the revenue sharing feature of local option sales tax disbursements.
"This bill is unnecessary and costly," Fisher notes in the brief. "The most likely beneficiary is the development company that owns the land and hopes it will become more valuable if new incentives are attached to it. But development of that land will occur if demand will support it, incentives or no incentives. The taxpayers of Iowa are the losers."
The measure has attracted considerable interest from a range of lobbyists, including the Iowa Farm Bureau and Iowa State Association of Counties who have registered in opposition to the legislation. The Iowa Speedway's lobbyist has registered as undecided. The Iowa League of Cities supports the measure.
The bill currently sits in the House Ways and Means Committee after being introduced by Rep. Roger Thomas, an Elkader Democrat.
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