Wheeling hopefuls differ on TIF district benefits
Who benefits from tax increment financing is a source of disagreement among the four candidates seeking three seats on Wheeling's village board in the April 7 election.
On one slate are Trustees Ray Lang and Dave Vogel, as well as write-in candidate Joe Vito. He's served on the board since January, when Village President Dean Argiris appointed him to fill a board vacancy until the election.
Challenger Mary Papantos, making her third try at the office, is campaigning on her own.
The village has embraced TIF districts as a way to attract developers - retail, commercial and residential - to town. There are five TIF districts currently, two of which are similar to ones the village had allowed to expire.
Papantos said TIF subsidies shouldn't be awarded to residential developers. Since 2003, Wheeling has pledged about $11 million in TIF district money to the developers of the Prairie Park condos. And two years ago, village officials vowed to give up to $1.5 million in assistance to the developers of Millbrook Pointe townhouses.
Taxing bodies like school and park districts generally resist TIF districts because they lose out on property tax growth from new development for up to 23 years.
Papantos said TIF district-backed housing puts a burden on schools, libraries and parks because they face the costs of providing services to new residents without getting the tax revenue they generate.
Papantos also criticized the village's use of tax increment financing to buy land that remains vacant.
"I don't feel that Wheeling should be, or any municipality should be, a real estate developer in that we buy a lot of land and have it, quote on quote, 'shovel ready,'" she said.
Echoing her last campaign, Papantos said the village should prioritize filling vacant office and commercial buildings over courting developers who want to "build new."
"I feel that deserted buildings make a town look blighted," she said.
Vito, disagreed, saying that efforts to fill empty land and vacant buildings aren't mutually exclusive.
Businesses like Flix Brewhouse "want new land. They're going to want to build new," he said. The cinema-restaurant-brewery is anchoring plans for the $100 million Town Center, most recently delayed by unforeseen underground utility work.
The village board agreed to reimburse developers up to $8.6 million for the construction of Town Center, on land the village bought in 2008 for $3.8 million.
Unlike Papantos, Vito supports tax increment financing for residential construction. He conceded there were "bumps along the road" with Prairie Park and the recession, but the condos are now almost fully occupied and generating property tax revenue.
"If they didn't have the TIF funds, it wouldn't be there, and it'd still be a swamp," he said.
Vogel said he's behind TIF districts "100 percent" and believes Wheeling has done a good job of managing the five districts. He notes that the village has given surpluses in the special funds back to other taxing bodies.
Lang was less enthusiastic about using tax increment financing, which he calls a necessary tool to compete with other suburbs. He added there's a time and a place for doling out TIF district money to residential developers, and it wasn't during the housing crash.
But he defended the village's record of buying property with TIF district dollars.
Lang envisions housing or retailers on one such village-owned site on Milwaukee Avenue. Before the village's purchase, the lots held a mix of car dealerships, a gas station and repair businesses.
"Sure, we have vacant lots there," Lang said, "but it speaks much better to us that there's grass and trees there as opposed to old buildings with overgrown bushes and trees and cracked pavement and so on."