Local Government Subsidies: Worse Than We Thought
I have written several times about the convention hotel the City of Phoenix built downtown. At the time of that last article, it looked like the city would lose about $150 million total between the operating losses and the loss on the sale. But incredibly, it is worse:
Last week, City Manager Ed Zuercher released an economic-impact report that revealed more details of the deal. Along with that, he also released a memo that contends the tax break wouldn't add to the city's losses.
According to Applied Economics, an outside consultant hired to do the report, the tax incentive would spare the buyer from paying an estimated $97 million in property taxes to the city, county, school districts and other taxing jurisdictions over 20 years.
