But first, philosophical differences #
Addressing the philosophical differences briefly and then moving on…
Yes we have levy limits imposed on us by the state. They say build stuff or your levy stays flat.
Costs naturally rise thanks to inflation, creating pressure to build.
Path 1 is to play the game. All construction is good construction if it lets us increase the levy. If the tools we use mean that your individual tax bills rise because of that construction, so be it. If it means we have to give away millions in future tax revenue to attract the development, so be it. Raising the levy now becomes the singular goal.
Path 2 is to focus on the residents, create a level playing field, manage the budget, make tough decisions, and don’t sell out the vision of Caledonia being a great place to live in order to chase levy increases. Construction should support what people want and are willing to pay for. It should not be something that the village artificially stimulates. We’ll get labeled anti-development, regressive, stupid, NIMBYs, and doomed. I don’t expect the path to be easy, but if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.
And a little math on the problem… Caledonia’s total property value is $3.7B. To support 2.5% annual growth, not quite the rate of inflation, we would need $92M in new development PER YEAR. In ten years, that rises to $112M because growth makes the denominator larger. (The denominator on the levy increase calculation is total property value.) Our average new construction number for the last 8 years is $37M per year. So if you want to use construction as a way to solve the levy problem, you have to chase development MUCH harder than we have been. TID-financed or not, we’d have to more than double construction volume and keep it that way year after year after year.
Illustrated yet another way: that’s 5 F Streets every year forever.
Oh, and one other thing. I know, I know, I said “briefly” and now I’m not being brief…
Our biggest financial drain right now is the $1M per year subsidy into TID 4, $14.3M total from 2021 through 2035. It would take 9 F Streets to produce $1M per year in village tax revenue. So, if you think TIDs are a great way to deliver levy increase, know that they can also go horribly wrong and make your problem worse.
You can toss me in April 2027 if you don’t like my path, or my math.
Priorities #
I’m still just one of seven board members, albeit with maybe just a tad more influence over some things. Here are some quick immediate priorities:
- Public meetings need a reboot. Durations that don’t require NoDoz. Respect for citizens.
- Full disclosure and open discussion of the budget situation. You should know what the worry is about future budgets that is behind the relentless push to develop at any cost.
- Establish the village board’s priorities. We can avoid a lot of dysfunction and disappointment if those priorites are clear. And btw, Board, it’s harder than it looks to set and stick to priorities.
- Reboot Waters Edge discussion. What’s our vision? What are our options? What do the residents want? What are the cost ramifications to residents of taking our time to do it right?
And just generally, let’s produce less drama. Netflix should be more entertaining than village government.