Admiring Those Who Stand Up To River City Company’s BID Taxation Plan

  • Tuesday, July 23, 2019

This morning I am admiring a group of women business owners and managers from afar for opposing the River City Company’s BID, Business Improvement District tax scheme.  All local government tax schemes need an appropriate and fun acronym, PILOT, TIF, BID for the purpose of convoluting the devil in the details.  

These sugar-coated acronyms are for our own good. After all, we the people should not understand the details.

As business operators, these women are the essence of commerce where the rubber-meets-the road.  They pay local property taxes as rental and lease contracts.   It takes a lot of savvy to pay the rent, employees, maintain a viable product, and have enough left for a pay check.  There is no guarantee of income, so count me as an admirer of the commerce movers and shakers.  Their pursuit to speak to truth about the BID has been handled so poorly by the city of Chattanooga elected.

Business operators tire of county and city governments, with little notice, imposing fees and higher taxes. It seems, we the people, business operators, and property owners spend too much of our productive time fending off government from harming our community financially.  It is a huge distraction from business objectives.

However, we are a government by the people, and it is absolutely our civic duty to restrain government. That is the constitutional model of our country to empower people to lead government. The tail has wagged the dog way too long in Chattanooga with the weakest city council since Mayor Gene Roberts, who I fondly remember.

Let me assure you after reviewing the proposal set forth by River City Company, BID is a tax scheme.

These business women are the commerce stars of Chattanooga, and yet the city of Chattanooga initially marginalized their voice as not part of the BID equation. Initially, the city of Chattanooga acting in their true form, would not allow business operators to speak at the city council meetings. The city attorney initially stated only property owners could be heard at the council meetings.

Yet, special interest in River City Company had the unlimited ear of the entire city council at back room, fat cigar meetings, individually.

How fair is that?

Who does local government think generates the revenues that pays the downtown rents? 

After looking into the BID, this is mega special interests with River City Company and Kim White at the helm attempting to create a taxation authority by third party board.  Better yet, a board Kim White can control for instituting taxation within a specific area of downtown, and funding growth at River City Company.

It turns out that River City Company has developed a proposal that creates a BID taxing authority board. It the BID passes, it will be a forever tax monster for business operators and property owners.

Trust not, River City Company rearing its ugly head again.

How can we forget when Mayor Bob Corker turned over construction management to River City Company of the river front park, and concrete walls that fell into the river?  The failure of River City Company to inspect the concrete work by qualified inspectors cost we the people millions in taxes. Mayor Littlefield attempted to recover millions in taxpayer losses from River City Company, and the lawsuit was dismissed strictly due to time constraints for filing. 

We the people paid to build the concrete at the river front park twice thanks to River City Company’s poor management.

The city of Chattanooga then passed a resolution granting River City Company authority to accept applications and issue tentative approval of PILOTs.  It was not long before this non-profit real estate company issued themselves PILOTs (Payments In Lieu of Taxes) for a movie theatre downtown, and for other businesses where conflict of interest abounded.

The PILOT abuse by River City Company was so blatant that I made an appointment and met with the Chamber of Commerce president and vice president about the PILOT abuse.  My take-away at that time from the meeting with Chamber leaders was that my complaints about PILOT abuse originated from the River City Company, not the Chamber of Commerce.  That meeting was many years ago.  I appreciated that.

Sometimes, bringing everyone to the table to share concerns is beneficial. 

I understand that River City Company has since lost their authority to administer a PILOT program. We can be thankful for small gifts.  River City Company had no business with PILOT authority.

So back to the issue of BID.

Why in the world would we allow this real estate, non-profit River City Company to have their own board to administer a taxation program?

I reviewed the BID budget and proposal set forth by River City Company. The devil is in the language details in the BID proposal.  Our community needs to stop the passage of BID, it will be our taxation monster for business operators

Clean & Safe Services                     $625,000
Beautification/Special Projects   $200,000
BID Personnel                                   $87,500
Communications & Analytics       $43,750
Administrative Overhead             $43,750
TOTAL                                                   $1,000,000

Excerpted from River City Company Proposal:

“The BID will enhance services and support improvements as determined through an annual plan approved by the BID board of directors (the “BID Board”).”

“Management & Administration Staffing of a BID Manager, likely a new and specifically designated employee of River City Company, to assist with administrative support, (i.e.office, services, audit, etc.), BID program insurance, bookkeeping, and administrative support to ensure that BID initiatives are managed effectively and maximize accountability to ratepayers. Strategic planning and professional development to make sure that BID “best practices” are employed in Chattanooga.”

Then, the BID calls for a reserve for delinquencies and operations.  That is rather creepy, fun money for River City Company.

In closing, River City Company has essentially proposed to establish a board with taxing authority.  So initially, River City Company is seeking a starting seed budget of $1 million and a board that amends that budget or plan annually.

Granting taxation authority to a River City Company board is irresponsible.

I simply wish to convey to the business women opposing River City Company’s BID tax scheme that I admire each of you from afar.  Take names of each city council member that votes yes to the BID tax scheme, and use your productive energy to replace them. 

Respectfully to each commerce mover and shaker,

April Eidson

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