Temper, Temper

Poor Mayor Jerry.

After a resounding success in sabotaging the smoke-free ordinance, Jerry took one in the teeth Monday night.

And he's mad. So mad, he's gonna take his toys and go home. Game's over. I don't like you anymore.

King Jerry doesn't like to lose.

Seems last night the Champaign school board decided not to endorse an agreement about a special district the city wants to create in the South Research Park area. The plan, according to a story in Tuesday's News-Gazette, says the district's purpose is to accommodate UI expansion plans, along with city plans for a downtown taxing district. Makes sense, I suppose.

But not, apparently, to the School Board, which hopes that some of the taxable areas remain out of the TIF district. The board, looking straight into the teeth of a deficit, can't afford to surrender what could be hundreds of thousands of tax dollars.

You can see their point. You can see King Jerry's point.

But Jerry's so mad he's gonna take his TIF and go home.

And an angry Mayor Jerry Schweighart, who attended the meeting, declared negotiations dead.
"We made an agreement, and now they want another agreement," Schweighart said. "They want more. If they don't bring it up tonight, I'm not sure there will be further negotiations. We agreed to put more money up front, but that was contingent on action tonight. We're past negotiating now. I'm extremely upset."

Awwwwwww, poor Jerry.

The school board doesn't necessarily see the issue as dead. They think there's room for compromise and negotiation.

Scott Anderson, president of the school board, said he believes there's still room for agreement and time to negotiate so the district, which needs state approval, could be approved at the fall veto session.
"We've been negotiating for years, and there are very few items left," Anderson said. "They want to include a lot of taxable property in the TIF district, and given the tax caps that limit our income, we can't support that."

King Jerry doesn't think so. It's my way or no way.

Maybe there was a tacit agreement which was ready for approval and now the school board wants to change things at the last minute, Maybe negotiations were still open Monday night. Depends on who you listen to. But Jerry thought all that was left was approval. When that didn't happen Jerry called the board a bunch of welshers for not approving his plan. The school boared still thought the matter of the TIF boundaries required more negotiation.

The city originally wanted the tax increment district to extend three miles in all directions from the research park south of St. Mary's road, but negotiators have agreed to the district's demands that it extend one mile, Anderson said. But he said boundaries are still a key sticking point.

Not to Jerry.

Schweighart said he believes the schools' action is counterproductive because the UI can choose to build in the area and not pay taxes on the property.

That more or less makes sense. The school board sees it differently. Their side is that

"For us to encourage them to put taxable properties in the TIF district, that's not an appropriate thing to do," he said. "We want to stick with the original intent and make it apply to new development."
--- snip ---
"For some reason, the city has chosen to bundle the TIFs to coerce the board," Anderson said. "The first year, we'll be losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because of the property that will come off with the TIF."

This, to me, sounds like a situation that can be resolved with a little more negotiation. A bit of compromise on both sides. Who is right? I don't know. Who's wrong? Likewise, I don't know, probably no one. But getting mad and giving up isn't the answer. Negotiation and compromise would seem to be the answer.

King Jerry compromise? "Vision is lacking here," Schweighart said of the board's stance. Yeah, but who's vision? Govern Jerry; don't rule by royal fiat. It'll work better.

And so it goes.