Incentive reform advances to full Kansas City Council

A Kansas City Council committee approved much-discussed changes to the city’s economic development policy, recommending on Wednesday that the full council pass it.

The latest version of the ordinance included minor changes, but mostly remains true to the form discussed at last week’s meeting of the Planning, Zoning & Economic Development Committee.

Under the ordinance, which has been spearheaded by 3rd District at-large councilman Quinton Lucas, the abatement or redirection of tax incentives would be reduced by one-fourth. For example, a 10-year, 100 percent property tax abatement would be limited to a 75 percent abatement under Lucas’ ordinance.

Exemptions exist in Lucas’ ordinance, but not as many as originally proposed.

The council committee last week heard a version that included exemptions from the policy for two kinds of projects: those that go into distressed census tracts and those that earn a “high impact” designation under the city’s AdvanceKC initiative.

AdvanceKC’s evaluation of projects favors those that attract large numbers of jobs, attracts high-paying jobs and command significant investment from developers.

Committee chairman Scott Taylor pushed to reintroduce an exemption for historic preservation projects, which had existed in the original version of the ordinance.

“Is this going to slow down historic preservation?” Taylor asked. “That’s my concern.”

“I’ll give it a direct answer, which is no,” Lucas responded. “I do not have a great concern.”

Katheryn Shields, a 4th District at-large councilwoman who supports historic preservation projects, supported its exclusion from the ordinance.

The historic preservation exemption was removed after taxing jurisdictions lobbied to have most or all exemptions excluded from the ordinance. The ordinance’s sponsors reasoned that historic projects can qualify for assistance in the form of state and federal tax credits, and the AdvanceKC scoring system also favors those types of projects.

Taxing jurisdictions offered their support for the ordinance. Jan Parks, a spokeswoman for the Coalition for Kansas City Economic Development Reform, said she continued to support the ordinance as a good “first step” but would continue to monitor the city’s implementation of the policy.

The full council could vote on the measure as early as two weeksfrom now.

This story was originally published September 7, 2016 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Incentive reform advances to full Kansas City Council."