Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican, wants the Kansas Department of Commerce to track the success of economic initiatives like tax increment financing districts to evaluate the full burden on taxpayers. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — Some of Kansas’ largest cities are struggling to gain full returns on tax increment financing districts meant to help bolster development activity and property values, a recent state audit found.
TIF districts , as they are called, are intended to fund real estate projects that otherwise wouldn’t exist. The idea is that the development will increase property values in the designated district, resulting in higher property tax collections that are used to pay off the bonds that financed the project.
State auditors surveyed six TIF districts from Kansas’ largest cities and found that half did not recover their costs in a timely manner. Most experienced construction delays and recorded increased crime rates after development finished. At least one city calculated its TIF collection incorrectly.