Having completed a soon-to-be-released paper on Missouri’s profligate special taxing districts such as transportation development districts (TDDs) and community improvement districts (CIDs) with Graham Renz, I was pleased to see this news from the office of the Missouri State Auditor.
CIDs are designed to meet local needs by giving businesses and individuals and opportunity to band together to collect an additional sales or property tax to fund specific projects. However, the statutory requirements are lax and oversight is wanting.
According to the August 22 news release,
“Taxpayers are on the hook for billions in project costs they did not approve and have little to no say in,” Auditor Galloway said. “Meanwhile, there is no law to ensure developers are accountable for the public dollars they receive and there are few requirements of the municipalities that approve these districts. State laws must be reformed to ensure taxpayers get the protection they deserve.”
The complete Auditor’s report is available here. We welcome the Auditor’s contribution and look forward to joining this important policy discussion with our own policy recommendations soon.
