At Tuesday night’s public hearing July 14, the Ames City Council passed the first of three necessary votes to change a city urban revitalization district ordinance to include the rest of Target’s new development.

This will give Target Corporation an additional $200,000 in property tax breaks to continue building on undeveloped land in the Skunk River flood plain.

The vote was 5 to 1 in favor of this corporate welfare, under the name of Urban revitalization district number 5.

There was no mention of the amount of the tax subsidy offered or who would receive it, or that it will be applied to the undeveloped flood plain, or that Target is already receiving approximately $800,000 in similar tax subsidies for that portion of the property already included in the “urban revitalization” district.

That’s a total of $1 million in tax breaks from Ames taxpayers.

Note that Target is NOT eligible for a similar urban revitalization subsidy if they redevelop at their current location.

It seems obvious that Target will build their new building whether or not they receive this subsidy.

They have already begun the construction.

This would appear to make the intent of the subsidy pointless and a waste of taxpayer dollars.

There was no discussion of any justification for offering this subsidy at the council meeting.

Following this vote, a business owner on East Lincoln Way complained about the traffic hazard and nuisance the Target flood plain filling operation was causing on East Lincoln Way.

He had heard that 10,000 large dump trucks of fill dirt will be needed to complete this operation.

This ordinance change must go before the council and be voted on again at the next two City Council meetings.

Please call council members Hoffman, Campbell and Quirmbach.

Suggest this is an unwarranted subsidy and wasteful use of property tax revenue and should be voted down at the next council meetings on July 28 and August 11.

---

Joe Lynch

Ames