The follow was a letter submitted as a "Letter to the Editor" in the Shakopee Valley News. It was not published. Now it is.
Matt Lehman for Mayor
If you took the time to read "A Look at the Candidates" for mayor in the October 17 edition of the Shakopee Valley News you will note that point number 4 of Matt Lehman’s response mentioned that "a citizen asked key questions of the council concerning abatement criteria and strategy, which remain unanswered today." I was that citizen.
Matt Lehman referred to my discussion with the council and mayor Tabke as a "must see" and I agree. I encourage every voter to log onto the Shakopee Streaming Media Archive and view the tax abatement discussion from that August 7 meeting: http://shakopeemn.swagit.com/play/08072013-743/#41 (My presentation begins at 21 minutes into this video clip)
What conclusion will you draw after watching the video? I hope you draw the same conclusion that I did - that it’s time for a new mayor. I asked specific questions to mayor Tabke about the strategy that’s driving Shakopee to give away an extraordinary amount of tax breaks to corporations that seemingly don’t need it or, in some cases, didn’t even ask for it!
With Shakopee taxpayer dollars in play, I had thought that the mayor would be able to share with me, and the community, a well articulated strategy behind several recent concessions granted to public and private corporations, some of which have millions of dollars of cash reserves and are financially capable of coming to Shakopee without a taxpayer funded handout.
To my astonishment, I learned that there is no strategy! Today, the approach to giving away tax abatements is entirely "ad-hoc." Any corporation that wishes to move to Shakopee for any reason may submit a request for tax abatement. These requests are evaluated, of course, but not against any written criteria or general guidelines that can be shared with taxpayers. We, as taxpayers, have no means of judging which tax abatement requests do or do not warrant our support. And the video of the meeting shows this type of ad-hoc decision making may continue until all undeveloped land is developed and all unoccupied buildings are occupied.
Matt Lehman knows that a strategy is needed. Matt supports tax abatements, as do I, but with the caveat that taxpayers and businesses both benefit and that clear criteria is in place to support, and to defend, the decision to grant the abatement.
Matt Lehman voted "No" to the abatement being discussed on August 7. Mayor Tabke voted "Yes." Evidently the mayor is comfortable awarding tax abatements without a clear strategy but I am not, and that is just one of many reasons I will vote for Matt Lehman on November 5.
Kevin Gillick
Shakopee Resident