The 'but-for' test gets a failing grade

Saturday, December 16, 2017

Let's say you have a property tax bill of $2,000 -- or about the same amount that would allow you to finish a long-postponed kitchen remodeling project that you have been saving up for. Wouldn't it be great if someone else paid your property taxes for you so that you could finally do that kitchen? For you, that's just wishful thinking, but something very similar regularly happens for well-heeled developers all across Missouri. Thanks to tax increment financing (TIF), many developers are excused from paying property taxes and use the money they save to make major improvements to their commercial real estate properties. The Marquette Tower and H&H project in Cape Girardeau is a case in point.

To continue reading
For more than 115 years, the Southeast Missourian has written the first draft of local history. We have aspired to enrich, entertain, educate and inform. Our core values have remained firm: truth, service, quality, integrity and community. Support our mission.