TRAVERSE CITY — Opponents of two proposed city charter amendments to require voter approval of tax increment financing (TIF) plans piled up a more than 4-to-1 fund-raising advantage in the run-up to Tuesday’s election.
The Traverse Together organization — which opposes city ballot Proposals 1 and 2 — reported nearly $69,219 in cash and in-kind campaign donations for the pre-election campaign finance period ending Oct. 20. That compares to $15,160 raised by the TC Taxpayers for Justice organization, which developed and circulated the two ballot proposals to be decided by city voters at Tuesday’s general election.
“We expected to be outspent … that doesn’t surprise me. They’ve got a lot of support from developers,” said Fred Bimber, a retired Traverse City attorney who led the two petition drives over the past year-plus and is among the leaders of TC Taxpayers for Justice that support the proposals. “We’ll see what the voters have to say.”
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Much of the Traverse Together’s fundraising advantage was generated through a $27,510 contribution from Aspire North Realtors, a regional organization of area Realtors and real estate agents formerly known as the Traverse Area Association of Realtors.
Connor Miller, Aspire North’s director of government affairs, said the organization opposes the two ballot proposals because of what it sees as a potential negative impact on housing development in the city through the use of TIF dollars.
“We saw this proposal as something that would take away valuable tools that are used for housing,” Miller said. “We don’t want to lose tools that support housing in our community.”
Miller said Aspire North’s political action committee raised about $60,000 to support various candidates and issues in this year’s election, and that the contribution in the Proposal 1 and 2 contest was the largest single donation made by the organization this year.
Aspire North has a three-way agreement with state and national Realtor organizations to review campaign finance contributions, he said, and that both organizations signed off on the expenditure. Miller said the organization also helped fund local polling calls made in August and September to gauge local reaction to the proposals and support a “no” vote.
Bimber pushed back on the housing issue, countering that TIF dollars have done little to improve the housing situation in Traverse City beyond high-end housing projects and other developments used for short-term or seasonal rentals.
Requiring voter approval of TIF-related projects would force local officials and developers to improve the efficiency of those developments, he said.
“The projects that come forward for voter approval will be better than projects that don’t.”
Other major contributions to Traverse Together in opposition to the ballot proposals included: $10,000 from McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty which is based in downtown Traverse City and is the world’s largest provider of classic car insurance. The Hagerty firm was a major proponent of the $7.9 million Old Town parking deck funded by TIF dollars that opened in 2010 next to its headquarters building on Cass Street.
There were also $5,000 donations from Bob Barnes, owner of the Lume cannabis shops, and from Andrew Kempf who’s CEO of 4Front Credit Union. Downtown property owner Terry Beia contributed $4,500, and Brian Mullally who’s a partner in the Innovo development firm contributed $1,942. Downtown businessman and former Downtown Development Authority Board Chairman Bill Golden donated $1,100, and there were also $1,000 donations from former DDA Board members Pam Marsh and Katy Bertodatto, downtown restaurant owner Dave Denison, Andy Cole of the construction management firm Cunningham-Limp, and local businessman and downtown property owner Marty Lagina. Other $1,000 contributors include local residents Stephen Trippe, Christopher Morse and Matt Ness.
Traverse Together spent just more than $40,200 during the pre-election reporting period. Nearly half of that total — $19,350 — was spent on consulting services with Lansing-based consultant Grassroots Midwest.
“We realized we didn’t have the bandwidth it was going to take to run an effective campaign,” said Gary Howe of Traverse City, who’s also a member of the DDA Board and contributed $500 for in-kind donations in website development for Traverse Together. The group also spent $20,100 with Traverse Reproduction and Supply on yard signs, and a similar amount with the same firm for election mailers.
“We knew that a mailer campaign was going to be a big part of our efforts,” Howe said.
For the petition supporters, Bimber is the largest individual donor at a total of $5,000 — that included $1,000 reported in the campaign finance form and a $4,000 donation that came in two days after the Oct. 20 reporting deadline.
Bimber also loaned the campaign $3,647 for postage expenses. TC Taxpayers for Justice also received $1,000 from Karen Nielsen, and $500 each from Traverse City residents Mary Zacks and Fred Anderson who were among about a dozen local contributors to the campaign.
On the expenditure side, TC Taxpayers for Justice spent $4,820 during the reporting period that included $1,031 on yard signs, $2,980 in printing with the Copy Shop, and $790 with Eyes Only Media in Traverse City on advertising expenses.
Traverse Together also holds a large bankroll advantage heading into the closing days of the campaign. It took a balance of $28,301 into the final reporting period, compared to a $105 balance carried over by TC Taxpayers for Justice.
The petition drive for Proposal 1 was conducted last year by the TC Taxpayers group and certified in December, seeking to amend the city charter to require voter approval of all tax increment financing plans or extensions of TIF plans in the city.
The second petition drive for Proposal 2 specifically targets the city’s TIF ‘97 plan — now dubbed Moving Downtown Forward — which was approved for a 30-year extension by the DDA board in August but won’t be considered for action by the City Commission until the outcome of the election is determined. The current TIF plan will sunset in 2027.
TIF is a public financing tool created by the state almost 50 years ago to help redevelop deteriorating downtown districts. It captures the growth in tax revenue from a specific TIF district from a baseline value set when the district is established.
The growth in revenue is collected from all the entities that collect property taxes within the district. In the city’s case, that includes its general fund, Grand Traverse County, the Bay Area Transportation Authority, Northwestern Michigan College and several other local other taxing units.
The revenue growth, including inflationary property value increases as well as tax revenue created by new construction in a TIF district, is routed back into the district for expenses — including infrastructure projects identified in the TIF plan, along with maintenance and other costs associated with the TIF district.
Cumulative campaign finance totals will be reported in the post-election reporting period which extends through Nov. 25. Those reports must be filed by Dec. 7.