Shrewsbury Board Approves Walmart TIF, CID

The proposed redevelopment at Kenrick Plaza, which calls for a mix of public and private financing, has been a divisive issue in the community.

The Shrewsbury Board of Aldermen approved using Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for a planned Walmart development Tuesday night in a special meeting. A Community Improvement District (CID) for the area also was created. The vote was 4-2 in favor of the plan. Aldermen Elmer Kauffman and Alderwoman Dee Wiecher voted against the plan. Wiecher said she opposed Tuesday's vote both on principle and procedure.  "I spoke against the plan at the TIF Commission meeting," she said after the meeting. "But tonight I opposed it on procedural grounds." Wiecher was upset that the city held two votes in one evening, as opposed to holding the first reading at Tuesday's meeting and the second and final reading at the city's next scheduled meeting. She argued …

•  57 Comments
• Photos (2)

No TIF for Walmart: Resident Tired of Subsidizing Corporate Giants

"Shrewsbury has a spending problem not a revenue problem," writes M. Eileen Dorsey. "They have overbuilt and overextended and now expect taxpayers to bail them out."

Shrewsbury resident Eileen Dorsey sent the following letter to Patch. She has also sent it to the Shrewsbury city clerk's office as written testimony for tonight's TIF meeting. As a Shrewsbury homeowner and an owner of three properties in the Affton school district, I am adamantly opposed to Tax Increment Financing. It is none other than a tax subsidy of corporate giants and greedy developers – an unnecessary corporate bailout. A business should be built or not built based on its own economic merits. Unfortunately, the Shrewsbury city government is dominated by people who have an agenda. Their agenda is not the welfare of the entire Shrewsbury community but their own little clique community. When I moved back here in 1999, I was totally …

•  15 Comments
• Photos (1)

State Rep. Kirkton: TIFs 'a Long Way from the Original Intent"

New bills in the state house would require TIF proposals be put to a public vote.