BVBA Meeting - July 15, 2009 - Wednesday

A meeting of the Bay View Business Association has been scheduled for Wednesday, July 15, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at 2246 South Kinnickinnic Avenue.

This is your opportunity to voice your opinion on the proposed Business Improvement District.

Special interest groups can railroad this into law if those who are opposed do not voice their opposition.

Please, let them know LOUD AND CLEAR how you stand on controlling your own business WITHOUT government regulation and interference.

What do you get for your BID dollar?

So, what do you get for your BID dollar?

Police protection? If you would like police protection, why not call the police? The number is 9-1-1. And, although overworked at times, they do an excellent job of tracking crime patterns, and adjust their patrol areas accordingly. The police fight crime directly, not through a bureaucracy. They don't have the time or resources to play political favorites. It is dangerous to promote the idea that you can buy your way into better police protection with a BID.

Business Promotion? A smart business knows where to market and advertise, and doesn't need government help. Businesses can cooperate on joint ventures without the help of a salaried overseer. Collaborative business associations are organized all the time in the private sector. Why the need for a heavy-handed government program?

Graffiti removal? Can't we do that ourselves? It's paint – you get the solvent and wipe it off. If it sticks you get a wire brush. You can remove a lot of graffiti for $200. The cost the City quotes in their budget to do it is ridiculously prohibitive, and billed to the taxpayers at a rate the highest-paid remodeling contractor would envy. And if you feel the urge to control your neighbor's graffiti, there's more than enough bureaucratic machinery in place now in our city government, without the added bloat of the BID bureaucracy.

Banners? Buy your own! Almost every BID organizer tries to sell the idea of “unifying us all under one banner”. This is a deliberate manipulation of the truth. What's really going on in a banner project is nothing more than a series of (primarily) no-bid contracts given to political pals in exchange for political favors. It's expensive – the concept, demographic studies, design consultation, logo development, production operations, and presentation strategies – and it's all funded by your BID money at TOP DOLLAR – nobody is giving a price break for the good of the community. And EVERYBODY INVOLVED GETS PAID. The resulting banner product usually evokes snorts of disbelief - “you paid HOW MUCH for these?” Banners give a message to the passers-by – and that message is: “This area controlled by committee.”

Think of how much better you could allocate your own money in your own neighborhood, if only given the chance. Allow the businessmen to run their own businesses. It's free enterprise – give it a chance.

An example of how the government helps businesses

Here's an example of how the government can help your business. (as presented by Lori Lutzka at the May 14, 2009 meeting of the Bay View Business Association.)

The Tax Incentive District – Too much government? If you own a business on Kinnickinnic Avenue, BUT ONLY North of Russell Avenue AND South of Becher Street, AND ONLY on the west side of Kinnickinnic Avenue, IF you meet the residency requirements, AND IF you have employees, THEN you can receive a Wage Credit of 15% on the FIRST $10,000 in wages, on your FEDERAL TAX.So, let's get this straight, after filling out the Municipal Mandatory Sick Leave Compliance, Federal, FUTA, State taxes for your employees, then bowing down to the municipal government, you're allowed by the city to deduct $1500 from the income on which you pay taxes to the Federal Government. Figuring out hundreds of these little government hurdles can be a full-time occupation, leaving little or no time for running your actual business.

And Lori told us that there was another program of tax incentives for building rehabilitation, but unlike the Tax Incentive District program, the rehab program was complicated. Thanks a lot.

BIDS are as Permanent as Taxes

BIDS ARE PERMANENT Any business owner knows how hard the business has to work for the money a business builds up over the years. Having this money confiscated and re-distributed to other businesses is not to be taken lightly. And NOW is the time to voice your opposition. Because, once enacted, BIDs DO NOT GO AWAY. Why is this? Won't the city simply find out that the BID doesn't work, and stop the annual confiscation? Have you ever known a tax to be withdrawn or reduced?

“Won't the Business Improvement District idea be scrapped, if it doesn't take hold?” No, it won't disappear. When a business improvement district is proposed, the shoestring startup businesses are, of course delighted. “Progressive” established businesses in the district are mildly interested. “Aw, let's try it. We'll give the other businesses a chance, let's see what happens.” they say. Successful independent businesses, although in a minority, fall for the sales pitch of “progress”, and to placate other businesses and to give the appearance of being progressive, they acquiesce.

Once the BID is established, once the Government Office is open for business, the only way for any business to succeed within the BID is by “working the system”. And now the independent business has yet another “boss” to answer to.

The unelected officials at the BID office direct the business affairs of the district. Everything from police protection to tax incentives – it's all distributed at the Government Store Down the Street. More police patrols? Security? Street conditions? The city will tell you “go talk to your BID office”. Once a city bureaucrat finds out that someone is within a BID, the tendency is to refer business owners to the BID office. The BID office acts as the advocate in all departments of municipal government, moving the businesses one more bureaucratic layer from the people who are supposed to be serving them.

This is enough to drive successful businesses out of business. Those who once made a living find their resources drained by endless extra paperwork and relentless tax increases, now made worse by the additional BID tax. The smart businesses find that it is necessary to do business elsewhere as a matter of survival. The ones who lack this foresight are doomed to fail.

And once the profitable and once-successful businesses have left the District, what's left? The shoestring startups, clinging by their startup loans and grants. The startups, now in a majority, manipulate the BID. They see it as all “take” and no “give”. The vote for continuation of the BID is a vote for the end of business for the area. Anybody want to take a walk down Mitchell Street? Didn't think so.

The Reality of Business Improvement Districts – It Costs You

The Reality of Business Improvement Districts – Are you a Businessman? It Costs You

A Business Improvement District, once enacted, is mandatory for ALL the businesses in the district. Once it's established, a Business Improvement District cannot be ignored by those not interested. It's no longer a matter of “letting those do-gooders fall on their face” - it's now YOU paying the bills – a Business Improvement District takes YOUR MONEY. Each business Tax Key will be required to pay (estimated) $100 per $100,000 assessment. If you have more than one tax key, you have more than one mandatory entry in this sweepstakes of deterioration.

One entry for EACH tax key. Your Money – confiscated by the City Government, with the same authority as property taxes. Not an optional thing. This means if your building is for example assessed at $200,000, you'll have to pay (est @ $100/100k) $200 every year, as an enforceable, MANDATORY part of your property taxes. Of course, the building owners with business tenants will be forced to add this to the rent collected, making it more expensive for businesses to operate, and less attractive for new businesses to move into the area. Less attractive - more expensive - for new businesses to move into the area.

Example of a Business Improvement District - Mitchell Street – How Much More “Improvement” Can Mitchell Street Tolerate?

An example of a “successful” Business Improvement Distric was presented at a recent meeting of the Bay View Business Association - the Mitchell Street district. For twenty years, the Mitchell Street Business Improvement District has been working its magic, according to the Mitchell Street Business Improvement District representative at the BVBA meeting on May 14, 2009. The picture presented at the meeting is at odds with what can be see by simply driving through the district with one's eyes open.After 20 years of “Business Improvement” the area has gone from marginal to nearly uninhabitable. Twenty years ago, although not exactly thriving, the businesses on Mitchell were surviving. Then came the “improvements”. Traffic on the street was “improved” Oppressive traffic and parking restrictions were enacted, making travel through the area slow and inefficient. The major established businesses have since long folded or fled.

Mitchell Street -- no longer Milwaukee's center for bridal wear. Erv-The Workingman's Friend – no more! Goldman's – reorganized, but finally had to give up and fold. Kunzelmann-Esser – it's gone. Nothing significant in place of these established icons of Milwaukee business. Mitchell Street is now a street where only the government offices are thriving. Walk down Mitchell Street today, maybe the street crime will leave you alone, and you can take your choice of shoestring startup businesses enabled by desperate landlords. Building owners are given the choice between empty buildings, or giving cheap rent to novice startup businesses, none of them notable for their prosperity. This is what Business Improvement has brought to Mitchell Street.

Introducing a Business Improvement District to Bay View

In the past two meetings of the newly reorganized Bay View Business Association, there has been discussion of the creation of a Business Improvement District. A Business Improvement District (BID) is a group of businesses determined by location, not voluntary. Once the district is in place, by a majority vote of the tax-key holders in the district, a pre-determined amount is added to the property tax of commercial building owners within the district. Once the District is enacted, the additional tax levy is MANDATORY. All of the businesses must abide by the new ordinance enacted by the majority of the businesses.

The stated use for the money collected is the improvement of the district as a whole. One example are public relations items, (lamp-post banners, brochures, advertisements, etc.). Other proposed uses are for security -- graffiti removal and security cameras for example. Lots of the money is used for bureaucracy. An office is opened to help the businesses take advantage of various government programs and services, and to oversee the affairs of the District.

However, some are of the belief that this extra collection is excessive and unnecessary – just another layer of bureaucracy for the businessmen to answer to. The businesses do not receive equal benefits – some are more experienced and adept at extracting benefits from the system. Laborious studies conducted by cronies of the directors spend tens of thousands of dollars to point out the obvious. The purchases made by the BID are prone to no-bid contracts. Examination will reveal that the so-called benefits and results of BID activities are items that the businesses could have furnished by themselves at a far lesser cost