Development debate heats up as vote gets closer

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I have three objections to rebating 75% of the hotel tax back to the developers: 1) When communities compete with each other by offering tax incentives to companies to do business in their area, they are playing beggar-my-neighbor with other communities. It is a situation in which the communities lose overall, and private enterprises can only profit. What must not be forgotten is that those tax rebates are paid for by local people either through the loss of the services that those taxes would have paid for, or by having to make up the deficit in the cost of providing those services through an increase in the local income tax, sales tax or property tax. Over the years, this leads to a significant shift in the tax burden away from profit-making enterprises and onto private citizens. I do not think this is right or justifiable. 2) In the present case, the developers have already benefited from a $15 million package of incentives paid for by taxpayers. Is there no limit to the greed of these people? 3) According to what I have read in the Wichita Eagle, a typical daily room rate in the planned 'boutique hotel' will be around $150. This is far more than the average Wichitan would or could be able to afford, and yet they are the ones who will be (and are already) paying for the development. What if the developers were planning to build a theme park intended to attract wealthy out-of-town visitors with entry prices set at $150 a head, but to whose cost local people were still expected to make a multi-million-dollar contribution? If local people could not afford to enjoy those facilities, how reasonable would such an arrangement be? Yet this is exactly the kind of deal that the developer is proposing. I urge Wichita's voters to mobilize in opposing the deal and voting NO on February 28.