Voters in Olivette, Missouri got a chance to slam-dunk Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Home Depot all in one shot! Voters on February 8th. went to the polls and rejected an 80 acre shopping center that was crammed with big box logos. The project needed government assisted Tax Incremental Financing (TIF). By a vote of 1,656 to 1,435, Olivette rejected the huge shopping center. “We’re thrilled to death that we won on the development issue,” said Chris Osborn, who led the Committee to Repeal the TIF. Ironically, the group that supported the shopping center, adopted a name often recommended by Sprawl-Busters, using the word “First” in their title: Citizens for Olivette First. Fortunately, Olivette First came in Second. The losing side has this to say, according to postnet.com: “The city now gets back to work to figure out what its future is with respect to development. The citizens are saying they don’t want development in that area. The voters came out to say they don’t want a Wal-Mart. At least the city has the ability to get back to work.” The shopping center was opposed by 53.6% of the voters. No figures were presented on campaign expenses on the ballot question. In all cases that Sprawl-Busters has investigated, the developers and corporate anchors will far outspend local citizen groups in such ballot questions. Money does not always prevail in democracy — but it sure helps.
No specifics were available regarding the corporate welfare being proposed in the Olivette deal. TIF allows a municipality to write down the development costs of a project by forgiving the payments of property or sales taxes that would normally accrue to the locality. It is a direct form of taxpayer subsidization of projects, and a questionable form of corporate welfare for companies that have enormous financial ability to pay for their own development costs. Such taxpayer subsidies allow the big corporations to cannibalize smaller businesses in town that receive no such public underwriting of their costs. TIF financing for retail sprawl is an example of government-assisted suicide for smaller retail establishments.
