Thanks to Paul O’Malley for flagging this one. Kevin Leininger has a story for the Fort Wayne News Sentinel on a ruling by the Indiana Economic Development Commission that Fort Wayne Newspapers, Inc. would receive a tax credit of only $250,000 compared to the $2.5 million that had been estimated.
The tax credit is the Community Revitalization Enhancement District credit which allows groups or individuals in a CRED district to claim an income tax credit of 25% of the “qualified” investment. The qualified investment in the case of the Fort Wayne Newspapers project was estiimated at about $10 million. Fort Wayne Deputy Director of Development Greg Leatherman speculated that perhaps the State concluded the press project would have happened somewhere in Fort Wayne with or without the CRED credit and, therefore, wasn’t a qualified investment for the most part.
The rest of the story discusses the potential negative effect that uncertainty of this sort may have for future investment since investors might not be able to accurately plan the benefit of the credit if they will actually get if they sink money into such a district.
It does NOT endanger development, please…
If we lower the tax rates for EVERYONE and simplify the system Indiana would grow and grow and grow.
Targeted tax incentives are just a way for politicians to get re-elected.
Mike Sylvester