Long Running TIF Feud Ends In Disappointing Non Decision
If our new Governor needs more money to balance the budget, he might try setting up a gift shop in Jefferson City. I think one just outside the Missouri Supreme Court building would do nicely. They could sell the usual corncob pipes, walnut bowls and the colorful headdress of our indigenous aboriginal peoples that you expect to find in Missouri’s finer roadside gift shops. But they could also carry a few specialty items for when those city slickers come to town with their high priced attorneys expecting definitive answers to lofty legal questions.
A taxpayer from St. Charles County could take home a souvenir T-shirt that beneath an image of the scales of justice might say, “I spent $500,000 on a law suit and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.” I think there’s a definite market among our County officials for ones that read, “I’m With Stupid…the lawyer who told me I could file a law suit five years late.”
Or they could all chip in and give the County Counselor a comical mug that says, “What Statute Of Limitations?” Like the massive legal fees wasted on the County’s TIF lawsuit against St. Peters, it’s the kind of thoughtful gift that makes a real impression. The County Executive might even pick up a few bumper strips that say, “Honk If You Hate The Missouri Supreme Court.”
Honk! Honk!
Joe’s holy war against TIFs came to an abrupt end last week when the Missouri Supreme Court returned the County’s challenge to St. Peters use of tax increment financing to the Appellate Court without instruction or an opinion. Even if you disagree with the County Executive, his propensity for suing other taxing entities or the abusive language he reserves for public officials whose only crime is following State Law, you still have to wonder what the Supreme Court was thinking. They agreed to hear the TIF case on appeal, allowed both sets of lawyers to present their case, asked pointed questions and then didn’t render an opinion.
Way back in 1993, St. Peters used the TIF law to help generate funds to pay for the popular Rec-Plex. New businesses like COSTCO eventually made the TIF area a financial success. You would think that would have been cause for the County Executive to give then St. Peters Mayor Tom Brown a pat on the back. The bottom line is that the citizens of St. Peters, and from an even wider area of the County, ended up with a first-class public recreational facility.
Instead, the County Executive said Tom Brown and St. Peters were criminals “stealing” money from the County. If that’s true, then I want to report a robbery that takes place every April 15th. St. Peters was merely following the State Law and used the redevelopment tools at its disposal. Whatever complaint Joe Ortwerth and some members of the County Council had with the State’s TIF laws, the place to change them was in Missouri General Assembly. It isn’t as if that option was foreign to the County Executive. After all, he spent twelve years as a State Representative before running for County Executive the first time. Hmmm, I wonder when the State’s TIF Law was first voted on?
Now State Representative Tom Dempsey is trying his hand at rewriting the State’s TIF Law. People get heartburn, and rightly so, over some developments that have qualified for TIFs in the past. But even under the reforms proposed by Tom Dempsey, it looks like the St. Peters TIF of 1993 would have qualified. It was a model of what’s right with the TIF law.
It was the wrong case for the County Executive to pursue from the beginning. Not to mention how late the law suit was. Circuit Judge Lucy Rauch rightly ruled in 2003 that St. Peters had followed the law. The Appellate Court rightly ruled that St. Charles County had filed its challenge way too late. In the face of these earlier defeats, one wonders why the County pursued such an expensive course to the detriment of the taxpayers. Most political observers agree the case had more to do with a feud between Ortwerth and Brown than about what made legal sense.
St. Peters taxpayers shelled out over $400,000 and the County claims it spent over $100,000 on this case. The County total is probably far more when you consider the time and effort of the County Counselor’s office. And where did all that money come from you might ask? That’s right, it was your money. In the end, the much-hyped Supreme Court showdown between the County Executive and St. Peters was as disappointing as the Cardinals post-season. Honk if you hate the Red Sox.
