Should We Pay Professionals To Live Downtown?

[tufsu1]

FYI - folks who purchased at the Parks @ Cathedral townhomes when they were first built got a 10-year discount/abatement on property taxes.

Sadly I bought there in 2006, so no "discount double check" for me

[thelakelander]

That's definitely a form of paying people to live in a certain area.  In general, how much do you pay annually in property taxes?  Just wondering what that adds up to over 10 years and if that number would be in the range of what Detroit's Live Downtown program is providing to urban home buyers.

[tufsu1]

when I bought, my property taxes were $2300...this year they were around $1800

Tax abatement is what they used in Philadelphia

[thelakelander]

So from what I understand, Detroit's Live Downtown program gives downtown home buyers a one time $20k payment to help with their purchase.  At your current property tax rate, if you had purchased early enough, your incentive would have been $18k over 10 years.  Pretty much the same area financially, just a different way of handing out the incentive.  The major difference between Philly, Detroit, Cincinnati, etc. is that they are doing this widescale as opposed to isolated development projects, here and there.

[rcsolano]

Springfiled is considered part of the downtown area, why not give folks who are restoring, or willing to restore homes in this least desirable Historic District an incentive to bring these old homes back into service. It helps community stabilization, tax rolls and beautification of what was once the pride of Jacksonville. Historic Preservation commission only penalizes homeowners who are attempting to repair their homes, instead of assisting in the process. If Jacksonville is looking to make the landing into TIMES SQUARE" they've failed miserably. Other than the St. John's River, which can't be diverted to please some fat cat, there is nothing there to entice locals to visit. Assist the tax base in the proximity to downtown and bring some family entertainment to downtown to draw families into downtown from the surrounding communities.

[simms3]

I think the missing ingredient in Jax is smart people working for the city.  Charlotte steals talent away from the banks.  City of Philadelphia has remained competitive enough to attract Wharton talent.  I have met many top talent analysts working for many different cities doing essentially what they would do in the world of finance (aka modeling) and earning competitive salaries (in fact most came from banks, brokerages, risk management departments, insurers/re-insurers, equity shops, etc).  That's where Jax should be throwing money (i.e. salaries and benefits packages large enough to shop talent from good schools and other cities/companies).

Nothing ever put together by the city seems to work, and frankly I think that's a reflection of the skills and capabilities of the city.  The modeling just doesn't seem to be there.  The bond issuances...what's going on there with Jax?  The tax programs, the incentive programs, these should be run like they are in the private sector.  If Jax were a private company, it would have been swallowed up and disassembled long ago.