Pulaski County Commissioners have a problem — one of their two delegates to the St. Robert Tax Increment Financing Commission, Tom Lynch, can’t attend the TIF meetings due to prior commitments.
A TIF district is intended to encourage development of an area that has been declared to be “blighted” and allows the difference in tax revenue between the pre-development and post-development valuations to be directed to the developer for a specified period of time; the developer then uses the proceeds to pay for his development expenses.
The other member appointed by the county commission, Dick Pennington, attended the preliminary TIF commission meeting and expressed his concerns that the county, with only two votes, doesn’t have much of a voice compared to St. Robert with six votes, the Waynesville R-VI School District with two votes, and other taxing entities such as the fire departments and library board which share a single vote.
The proposed St. Robert TIF would redevelop more than 100 acres of land occupied by the Fields Hotel and an abandoned trailer court outside the main gate of Fort Leonard Wood. The hotel has been vacant for years and recently burned down due to unknown causes.
During their Monday morning commission meeting, Presiding Commissioner Bill Ransdall said he wanted to correct a perception that he’s opposed to all TIF districts.
“I’m not trying to appoint people who are in opposition; I’m trying to appoint open-minded people who want to do the right thing,” Ransdall said. “It’d be nice if we knew some retired businessperson who had some knowledge of TIFs or a retired city councilperson who had knowledge of TIFs.”
However, Ransdall said he wasn’t sure how much influence Pulaski County can have on the final vote even if it fills both of its slots on the TIF commission.
“We’re outnumbered anyway since the school and the city get together,” Ransdall said.
In addition to Pennington, the TIF commission members are Waynesville R-VI Superintendent Judene Blackburn, Jon Oetinger, the school district’s assistant superintendent for business and finance, and Loakimo Falaniko, Frank Hebert, Alan Schlie, Cecilia Murray, Bland Smith and Gordon Hurd representing the city of St. Robert. The other taxing districts haven’t yet appointed a representative for their interests.