July 21, 2014
Editor:
Dave Uphoff
Viewers may be tired of hearing me harp about the unfair Wenona TIF district, especially Fieldcrest Board of Education members. However, after getting no reply from board members on my public request for a reason why the board rejected a motion to deny the extension of the Wenona TIF district for 12 more years, I found out myself from an anonymous source.According to the source, after a motion was made to reject a request to grant an extension to the Wenona TIF, the attorney for the City of Wenona was allowed to speak and he told the board members that a decision was not required until 2016. Upon hearing this, all board members except Joe Kirkpatrick were of the opinion that there was no reason to rush a decision since a decision is not required for 2 years and things could change during that time. The board members were right that things could change in the next two years. For openers, there is another election for board members before 2016 and the result could be a board that will look favorably upon an extension. Also, the state could change the rules so that tax bodies could no longer have the ability to prevent an extension of a TIF district time frame.
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So what is to be gained by waiting to make a decision? The fact remains that the Wenona TIF district is unfair and is costing the Fieldcrest School District thousands of dollars a year. Waiting to make a decision is not going to change that fact. Waiting only prolongs the controversy and improves the possibility that the extension may be granted. The Fieldcrest Board of Education should deny Wenona's request for an extension to their TIF district as soon as possible. This will end the controversy once and for all and give Fieldcrest taxpayers a sigh of relief and save the Wenona city officials from trying to come up with numbers that will never be enough to compensate for the loss of school tax dollars to their TIF district.
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