Ellisville to Host Hearing on Special Tax District for Walmart

The City of Ellisville will host a hearing Monday night about the creation of a Tax Increment Financing or TIF district sought by the developers of a potential Walmart Superstore.

If the TIF is approved, developers behind the store, which would be located , would capture 50 percent of all new sales tax growth businesses within the TIF district experience for a default length of 23 years. The withheld tax dollars, by definition, would then be used to make infrastructural improvements to the surrounding area, which state law requires to be identified as "blighted" or "conservation" areas.

The targeted redevelopment space falls under the first phase of a project aimed at rehabbing the area surrounding Manchester and Clarkson roads, which includes a total of 32 parcels of various sizes. The area presently includes Westgate Animal Hospital, Valvoline and LC Auto Service, as well as Clarkchester Apartments, an adjacent 100-unit complex. At the city's Feb. 1 council meeting, council members were poised to vote on a proposal establishing the city's "relocation policy," but the proposal was delayed citing a need for "further adjustments and revision," Mayor Matt Pirrello said.

Kenneth Hubbell and Peter Eaton of the University of Missouri's Center for Economic Information wrote in a report on Missouri's TIFs that despite the language in the state law, a TIF district can be created virtually anywhere.

"Early on, states restricted TIF projects to “blighted” or “substandard” areas within the community. But over time, bending to local political pressures, the requirements for such a designation were watered down and lost any real meaning ... Under the expanded criteria literally any project qualifies for TIF, i.e., public improvement such as golf courses, and parks, and private projects such as housing, office buildings, hotels, and skywalks."

Often controversial because of perceived short-term benefits, TIFs frequently cause concern among neighboring taxing bodies, including local school districts; the creation of a TIF district typically increases a school district's reliance on property taxes as its main source of revenue.

Representatives for the maintain that any TIF district is "not automatically for or against Tax Increment Financing," declaring in an official statement that "each individual TIF project should be considered on its own merits."

The TIF hearing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Monday at the in Bluebird Park.