Tax-Increment Financing in Saint Louis

Corporate Welfare |
By Patrick Tuohey | Read Time 1 minute minutes

Despite being used in dozens of development projects in Saint Louis, tax-increment financing (TIF) has failed to produce demonstratable economic benefits for the city. Not only is TIF routinely used in relatively prosperous areas in which development likely would occur without incentives, but there is little if any evidence that TIF has a net positive economic impact regardless of where it is applied.

This essay explains how TIF is intended to work, where in the Saint Louis area it has been applied, and the (underwhelming) results of its application. Click on the link below to read the entire piece.

 

About the Author

Patrick Tuohey is a senior fellow at the Show-Me Institute and co-founder and policy director of the Better Cities Project. Both organizations aim to deliver the best in public policy research from around the country to local leaders, communities and voters. He works to foster understanding of the consequences — often unintended — of policies regarding economic development, taxation, education, policing, and transportation. In 2021, Patrick served as a fellow of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Yorktown Foundation for Public Policy in Virginia and also a regular opinion columnist for The Kansas City Star. Previously, Patrick served as the director of municipal policy at the Show-Me Institute. Patrick’s essays have been published widely in print and online including in newspapers around the country, The Hill, and Reason Magazine. His essays on economic development, education, and policing have been published in the three most recent editions of the Greater Kansas City Urban League’s “State of Black Kansas City.” Patrick’s work on the intersection of those topics spurred parents and activists to oppose economic development incentive projects where they are not needed and was a contributing factor in the KCPT documentary, “Our Divided City” about crime, urban blight, and public policy in Kansas City. Patrick received a bachelor’s degree from Boston College in 1993.

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