The Business As Usual Test

At Tuesday night's Common Council meeting I announced that from now on I plan to apply the "Business as Usual Test" to every economic development proposal that comes before us. Challenging or putting an end to business as usual (BAU) was one of the main themes of the campaign season, and pretty much every candidate said that BAU was unacceptable.

At the meeting I characterized business as usual as:
*Limited public input
*Limited public buy-in
*Questionable financing and/or planning

I applied the test to two important resolutions on the agenda, and ended up having to vote against both because neither was sufficiently divorced from BAU.

The first resolution would have directed city staff to prepare a tax incremental financing (TIF) district proposal to pay for the city's contribution toward rebuilding the convention center. I believe that the city has a responsibility to maintain property that it owns, and so I do want to be able to support a credible proposal to renovate the Center. Unfortunately, what we have done so far is business as usual:
*Limited public input: On June 26 the council had a workshop on the convention center that occurred at around 10 p.m. No members of the general public were invited to speak. The only chance the public had to address the Council on this matter (other than via private correspondence) was at the Tuesday night meeting.
*Limited public buy-in: Almost all the public commentary (at least that I have heard) on the Convention Center has been negative. I have been surprised at the number of people I meet out and about who are familiar with Dr. Kevin McGee's op-ed on this matter. Those who identify with McGee's piece seem concerned mostly with the financing of the project. Other people are concerned about the size of the structure (they think it's too small), others think it should be torn down, and others don't accept the argument that a renovated Convention Center will boost the downtown economy.
*Questionable financing and/or planning: Fifteen minutes before the start of last night's meeting, Councilors were given a memo from Community Development Director Jackson Kinney saying that the existing TIF from which money would be borrowed (TIF #15) could be closed this year. However, "If TID #15 were utilized as a donor to proposed new TID #22, it would be anticipated that TID #15 would terminate in 2027."

I pointed out during the meeting that Oshkosh, with 17 active TIF districts in place, is far ahead of other northeast Wisconsin communities (Fond du Lac = 8, Appleton = 6, Green Bay = 12, Neenah = 4, Menasha = 9). One of city manager Wollangk's goals for the year is to prepare a report summarizing progress in the TIF districts. I argued that before any new TIF is created, we should see that report. Why create a new TIF if it turns out that progress in those existing is not sufficient?

Going into the meeting last night, I thought that there were 4 votes for the Convention Center project as proposed. I was pleasantly surprised to see that we challenged BAU, and will hold another workshop at which citizens will be invited to participate and at which city staff will be prepared to discuss alternative financing mechanisms. The Council voted to table the resolution calling for creation of the TIF proposal; I voted against tabling because I don't see TIF as viable for the project and so I thought it would be better just to defeat the resolution.

I'm teaching a summer class and am running out of time. Sometime later today or tomorrow I will apply the Business as Usual Test to the Ackess Waterfront proposal.