By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Since he “missed all the fun at last week’s work session,” Hays City Commissioner James Meier said Thursday night he wanted to publicly voice his views on the presentation proposal for Big Creek Travel Plaza. Meier was on vacation Sept. 3 when Colby-based NWK Investments, LLC, asked for three types of economic development incentives to build northwest of Hays.
The proposal was withdrawn Wednesday after investors decided the plan could not move forward with funding solely from a Community Improvement District (CID).
Meier said all three incentive requests were “non-starters” for him.
“As far as the IRB (Industrial Revenue Bond) goes, I think that was a non-start for everybody because essentially they were asking the city to give up its sales tax (for construction-related purchases.) As far as the CID (Community Improvement District) goes, if you need 2 percent more on your revenues to make your project work, then you should just charge 2 percent more. As far as the TIF (Tax Increment Funding) goes, if it’s used to pay for public infrastructure, I guess that you can look at that as a good thing. But if somebody builds there anyway, we’re going to get that property tax anyway and we could use it for that public infrastructure.”
The developer had identified $10.5 million in TIF-eligible costs, but only $4 million were for public infrastructure — water, sewer, and street infrastructure. The rest of the TIF eligible costs were for land acquisition, site development and private streets/paving.
After Thursday’s meeting, Vice-Mayor Shaun Musil said he was surprised he “had not heard a lot from the public” after news of the project withdrawal became generally known.
During last week’s presentation, Musil said he thought the travel plaza could be a “huge project for the city” and that he supported the idea.
“But, on the other hand, I think the incentives they were asking for were probably a little too much,” Musil explained as his reason for deciding against a TIF and IRB. “For us to be close-minded and say it’s not a good idea, I think is a mistake on our part. But, you know we can only do so much and at this time, as a group, we didn’t think it was the responsible thing to do for our community.”
Musil hopes the city commission’s decision doesn’t set a precedent for future development.
“One thing I thought about after talking with many people in the community, is it could possibly hurt the school district and Ellis County for 20 years. With low oil prices, they’re already hurting. Even though we’re not really making anything off of it right now, hopefully, within the next 20 years something will be developed. I think the possibilities are endless out there,” Musil added.
“Even though the city doesn’t rely on property taxes, I don’t want to hurt the county or the schools (which do rely on property taxes for their budget funding.) I think that would be a disservice to all of us,” he said.