On Land Swap – JG Sound Off excerpt:
Ken Hendricks was just named “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Inc. magazine. When is the Rock County board going to wake up and realize his team is trying to help Rock County? Everything he seems to touch turns to gold.
Hey Kenny, is that you?
If you think he needs the money, you’re brain dead. -- anonymous
Yeah. About as brain dead as the Janesville manager and council was when they decided to skim $2.7 million from Janesville water bills to pay for the special utilities needed to pump water to his "elevated" private development. Why should Ken Hendricks spend his own money for this - when he’ll be getting ours.
16 comments:
Look at what the development will do for Janesville in the long run. The houses being built will help the tax base in Janesville. It will well pass the amount of the water tower. You can figure every house built is going to generate at least $3,000 in property taxes for the city then you have the water utilities bill for each house which would generate at least $200 a quarter per house. So, each house will give Janesville at least $3,800 in taxes. That figure is probably low. With those figures and having built 50 homes in 15 years the city would pay for the water tower. Hendricks is making the city money.
I see where you're coming from but, I've heard the benefits of the "larger tax base" mantra before. I was at some of the council meeting regarding the Hendricks development and two things stuck out to me. 1. Like you, his spokespeople used the "larger tax base" theory as a good reason to be annexed into the city and number 2. They pretty much issued an ultimatum to the city, that if you don't annex, we will build anyways and you will have no control. The city should have called them on this for a better deal. Premium homes are a lot less premium with private wells and septics. The "larger tax base" presentation should be a warning sign to all. You cannot sprawl us into lower taxes, it is impossible.
But this really is not the issue here, it is the idea that billionaires building developments for the sake of profits need public subsidies to pay for things the public should not have to, regardless of the potential or lack thereof, of future economic returns.
He could have built them anyway without the annex. Wells and septic systems are as good or better than the city sewage system. The city knew he was going to build no matter what and they saw the oppornity to get that tax base that they wouldn't get if the properties were served with well and septic. The city is a business to. They are out to make money and they didn't want this one to slip away. He shouldn't have to pay for a water tower. He didn't need it. the city did.
In today's polluted environment, water and waste issue's have a huge, huge impact on the quality of life and the quality of property. Right now even with better technologies, small private wells and septics are inferior to city services, with no exceptions. In fact, some properties are useless if not worthless without the access. For all we know the aquifer under that property could be polluted. The city gave away it's most valuable asset when it could/should have used it as a bargaining chip. If the city leaders have the mindset to "make" money on a broader tax base built on sprawl, we will lose. Costs will outweigh income resulting in higher taxes. While the private investors walk away with the dividends.
Regarding anonymous 9:58AM - The city will not profit $4000 per house, because most of it will be chewed up in costs. The city would be lucky to have 3% of that as extra income. But lets get crazy and pretend the city did actually "make" 4,000 per house on annual taxes. It would still take 50 homes 10 years to pay back without interest. This is a loser.
And if I may add...... just like the county land swap that is being dealt with. We can't forget who is approaching whom. The Hendricks Development team approached the City of Janesville, not the other way around. It was a Hendricks presentation, not a City of Janesville presentation. The city has the stuff the investors want, they gave it away. Now the county has what this same group of profiteers want, they too will probably give it away.
Private wells and private on-site sewage systems are much better for the enviroment than the municipal treatment plants. When a house is on the municipal water and sewage system the water is pulled up from a huge well somewhere in the city. When the homeowner uses water that water goes into a pipe and eventually into the rock river which ends up in the ocean. The water never recharges the aquafier. With a septic and well type system the water they use is used from their property and when water is used it goes back into their soil and rechgarges the ground water. Just wanted to clear up some misconseptions of septic and well systems. With Wisconsin's strict codes the septic systems will not pollute the ground water if maintained properly.
There are no misconceptions on my part, private shallow wells often contain dangerous VOC's including atrazine and elevated chloride and nitrate concentrations as a result of widespread agricultural land use. There is also concern about the possible direct cycling of contaminants between septic systems and wells, at least in more densely developed areas like Janesville. Private wells are not monitored like municipal wells are. You don't know what you're drinking. The discharges into the river often effect groundwater tables and recharge shallow wells to complicate matters even more. Besides, both private and septic are expensive and a hassle to maintain. Properties with municipal sewer and water are worth at least $25,000 more in hidden value.
Municipalities do have a problem with overusage, everybody wants to connect, so some people feel they may have to go back to private wells. That is actually what makes Janesville water so valuable.
Some of the best real estate in the world isn't accessible to municipal water and sewer. It only takes three feet of suitble soil to treat waste water to the EPA's standards of drinking water. There aren't to many three foot wells out there that I know of.
Private wells less than a hundred feet deep are generally considered shallow with most in the 25 to 40 foot range. The septic fields are much closer to the surface, aside from the storage tank which holds the solids, the rest is broken down by microbes and it has nowhere else to go but back into the aquifer which is right below.
I don't know if they tested and perked the Hendricks land, but I do know this, with city water and waste infrastructure, the land has already doubled in value without even building a single home.
The Wisconsin DNR is neck-deep in groundwater issues. The safety of all our groundwater is in serious jeopardy. That is the primary reason residential developments want annexation, otherwise they fight annexation tooth and nail.
The primary reason is a taxbase. The developer doesn't have to pay for the roads etc. It's not about the ground water issue.
If it's not about the water, why the $2.7 million give-away. Had the city proposed an exception to exclude the Hendricks property from city water and sewer, which they could have, the developers would want no part of annexation. Roads are Fed/state law for access, the water issue was negotiable.
Why would they exclude him? That's more money they will get from taxes. The roads are paid for by someone else other than the developer. You missed the point I was trying to make.
I wonder why the township didn't have a problem with the annex. They usually put up a big stick with annexation. Unless this land was in future expansion plans for the city.
I have no idea why the township did not fight, certainly they would have fought for the tax dollars if it would have benefitted them like everyone thinks it will benefit Janesville. But again that is not he main isuue. My concern from the start is the idea that deep-pocketed business ventures need public subsidies.
The city needs businesses men to develop land and build houses. If they didn't city's wouldn't have houses to build their tax base. They work hand in hand. Who is it to say that a successful business person needs to pay for some things that less sucessful businesses don't have to pay for?
Government!! That's what good government is all about. Other than creating laws and enforcing them, it is up to government to spend/use revenue collected from the taxpayers appropriately. Poor government gives money away unnecessarily as they have been doing for the past 12 years. Corporations can easily raise money by selling their own promissory notes(stock), providing it looks good to the investors. When that does't work, they lobby the givernment for earmark money.
Building a larger tax base on sprawl should be the last resort for a city like Janesville when at least 25% of the existing tax base (housing stock) needs renewal.
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