Austin’s Referendum on Retail Incentives

(Community Matters) Brian Rodger’s Stop Domain Subsidies campaign sounds ill-conceived in that it’s asking the City of Austin to renege on a contractual commitment. And, it’s taking out of context the original council decision to support the mixed use retail & residential development in north Austin. Even the campaign’s title is misleading in that the Austin taxes rebated are invested and earning a return.

First, best to separate the referendum into two issues. The first, whether City Council ought to grant tax incentives to projects including retail should be one issue. The other should be whether or not we live up to agreements we’ve made in the past.

On the latter, in 2003 the capital markets weren’t open to mixed use development in the Southwest USA. Austin was in the tank development wise and there wasn’t any immediate prospects for an expanded tax base on the site developed into the Domain. Plus, Central Texans through Envision Central Texas were prioritizing denser development. As members of the non-development community, Robin Rather and I – we were both members of LiveableCity’s founding board at the time (I’ve since resigned)– both spoke at council in favor of the Domain development tax incentive agreement. Council approved it 6 to 1, there was significant negotiating and binding agreements were signed.

It strikes me as way too Bush/Cheney-esq how Brian misstates claims of contract noncompliance which the city staff counters and disproves. This doesn’t do anything to enlighten the conversation which we absolutely should be having – do we want to ban tax incentives for retail or mixed-use projects going forward.