A Thousand Voices: Readers unsure about city’s economic development incentives policies

If anything can be derived from our latest LJWorld.com survey, it’s this: Many readers are unsure when it comes to the city’s economic development incentive policies, which have recently been used — but questioned — by those in City Hall.

About half of the approximately 1,000 who responded to the survey answered they were “not sure” if they supported the policies or if they agreed with recent incentives decisions by the City Commission.

A good chunk of respondents — about 37 percent — said they did think the policies needed revised. That’s something the City Commission has said it’s planning to discuss early next year.

About this article

A Thousand Voices is a feature that surveys readers of LJWorld.com about their opinions on a variety of issues being debated by the public. The Journal-World will regularly conduct a poll that captures a representative sample of the approximately 35,000 users of LJWorld.com. All polling will be conducted by our partner, Google Consumer Surveys. The Google system chooses participants for the poll at random. Users of LJWorld.com have no ability to choose to take the poll. Some people had this survey presented to them when they went to our website and some didn’t. Each poll consists of at least 1,000 responses from website users. The survey software calculates results using margins of error and 95 percent confidence levels common to the polling industry.

If you have a topic you would like to see as part of a future poll, please suggest it to Nikki Wentling at nwentling@ljworld.com

Here’s a look at the results:

Most readers — 57.8 percent — answered they were not sure about Lawrence’s current economic development incentives policies. The rest of the responses were split: 21.6 percent said no, they don’t support the policies, and 20.6 percent said they did. The results had a margin of error of 2.3 to 3 percentage points.

About the same number of people as the previous question (57.1 percent) said they were “not sure” about whether the city needed to revise its incentives policies. There was more of a discrepancy in the remaining responses: 34.6 percent said yes, the policies did need revising, and 8.3 percent said no. The results had a margin of error of 1.5 to 3 percentage points.

As for the City Commission’s recent decisions regarding economic development incentives, 59.6 percent said they were not sure about them. Seventeen percent said yes, they did support the decisions, and 23.4 percent said they did not. The responses had a margin of error of 2.2 to 3 percentage points.

When asked whether they considered the current City Commission as “business-friendly,” again, almost half responded that they were not sure. The remaining responses were 28.9 percent “yes” and 24.1 percent said “no.” The results had a margin of error of 2.5 to 3.1 percentage points.

It should be noted that this survey was conducted before news broke Wednesday about allegations of The Oread hotel improperly receiving almost $430,000 in sales tax reimbursements from the city. Sales tax reimbursements are part of an incentives agreement the city entered into with The Oread’s developers in 2008.

The number of “not sure” responses likely means the readers aren’t aware of what the city’s incentives policies are or how the City Commission has recently used them, or that they don’t know enough about them to offer an opinion.

The types of the city’s incentives — which are spelled out in documents on the city website — include loans and grants, infrastructure improvements, tax abatements, tax increment financing and transportation development districts. Each type has its own set of qualifications businesses must meet.

Since October, the City Commission has approved incentives for two downtown projects: the Eldridge expansion and an apartment project at 800 New Hampshire St.

The city will grant industrial revenue bonds for the Eldridge expansion that will save developers an estimated $460,000. Industrial revenue bonds exempt them from paying sales tax on construction materials.

Industrial revenue bonds were also approved for the New Hampshire Street apartments — which are planned for the old Pachamamas restaurant building — that will save developers on that project an estimated $317,000.

The city’s Public Incentives Review Committee voted earlier this month to recommend Menard Inc. receive an incentives package worth $2.3 million to build a manufacturing facility at Lawrence VenturePark. That request must go before the City Commission for final approval.

During discussions about the 800 New Hampshire apartments, Mayor Mike Amyx suggested commissioners gather early next year to discuss possible changes to the incentives policies. That project met the qualifications necessary for a business receiving industrial revenue bonds, but there was some question of whether those qualifications should be amended.

The Lawrence League of Women Voters held a public discussion on economic development incentives in November. There, Larry McElwain, president and CEO of the Lawrence chamber of commerce, said tax abatements and other incentives were tools to attract businesses and jobs to the city when used effectively.

He has told commissioners he wants the Chamber to be involved in the upcoming talks about revisions to the incentives policies.

Kansas University accounting professor Allen Ford brought up at that same public discussion (where he argued against public incentives) that if Lawrence were to stop using them, the city would be labeled as “anti-business.”

In our survey, the City Commission’s current level of friendliness toward the business community was — again — mostly unsure. But more people said commissioners were more business-friendly than those who said they were not.

The city is sure to hear more back-and-forth during the upcoming talks about how incentives have been used in the past and how they want them to be used moving forward.