Len Miller found sympathetic ears Monday night when he talked about Tax Increment Financing.

Tuesday, August 22, 2000

Len Miller found sympathetic ears Monday night when he talked about Tax Increment Financing.

Miller, the Fourth District Mower County commissioner, was truly out of his district, but when it comes to TIF he will go anywhere to learn the truth and to tell it.

Richard Epley, Austin Township Board chairman, invited Miller to address township officials at their meeting Monday night.

Miller’s Fourth District includes all of the city of Austin’s Third Ward, while Austin Township is located in David Hillier’s Third District.

"It’s taxation without representation," Miller told the township officials. "The county doesn’t have a say. The school district doesn’t have a say. It’s just the city of Austin."

"And," Miller implored, "the school district doesn’t collect all the taxes they lost. Nor does the county. And, the city does its TIF projects for 25 years. That’s a long time."

Miller wasn’t finished.

"All people in Mower County outside the city of Austin are paying for decisions made only by the city officials," he said.

The city of Austin received notice from the Office of the State Auditor’s TIF division in May that there is nothing to indicate non-compliance with the state’s TIF Act. Since then, Miller has been on a campaign. He has scrutinized the auditor’s report and discovered the city did not, indeed, receive a completely clean bill of health.

He also has requested TIF documents from the city regarding their TIF projects. In so doing, he was scolded for his action by Austin Mayor Bonnie Rietz in a letter addressed to Ray Tucker, Second District commissioner and chairman of the county board.

On Monday night, he shared with the township officials documents he has collected concerning every TIF project or TIF project modification undertaken by the city.

Pointing to the latest TIF project, which, in part, involves the Hormel Foods Corp. renovation of a building along Main Street North into Hormel Foods Corporate Office South and a SPAM food court and Hormel Foods museum, Miller said the company said at the outset it didn’t need any benefits created by a TIF district, nor did it want any.

 

On and on he went, alleging the city’s location of Cooperative Response Center is in a wetlands off 18th Avenue NW.

He even pointed to poor oversight of the Austin Municipal Airport expansion project as well as TIF projects, saying the airport project has more than doubled since officials originally announced its inception, $7 million to $15 million.

Another target of the county commissioner’s criticisms was the former county-owned driver’s license exam building property.

Appraised at $226,000 by the county and $125,000 by the city, the property was sold to the city at a loss for $175,000 with Miller casting the only "nay" vote against the measure.

Epley and Ron Skjeveland, vice chairman of the Austin Township Board, listened and nodded in agreement with Miller’s pronouncements.

"When the city puts up a building, like the Courtyard Apartments or any other subsided housing project, all the other residents around are subsidizing it, because the city doesn’t pay taxes," Skjeveland said.

Miller said his worst fear is that an already highly vulnerable ag economy in Mower County could be threatened by the drain of taxes due school districts and the county by the city’s TIF projects.

Epley liked what he heard. A long-time critic of the airport expansion, the Austin Township Board chair asked: "I wonder at what cost are all these TIF projects, like the Mill Pond and the others, being done, while the city is trashing public safety?"