Sunday, December 29, 2019

Lake Delton Intermingles TID and PRT Money

Readers can go online to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue -Tax Incentive Financing Information page to review the Village of Lake Delton annual submission for the year 2017.  Recall filing of the annual report for the year 2017 was due on July 2, 2018.

TID 4 created 7/23/2007

Under the transfer to other funds category - 433,321 transfer to PRT fund.

This records the Village of Lake Delton transferring money from the Tax Incremental District 4 fund over and in to the premier resort tax fund.  This is intermingling - the moving of money between the separate funds for utilization in a manner that is more regulatory acceptable.

The 2017 annual TID report filing documents the Village of Lake Delton's history of intermingling tax incremental district  money with premier resort tax money.

Saturday, December 28, 2019

Wisconsin Dells Dynamic One Year Wonder

One Year Wonder is slang that is used across the Wisconsin Dells area to describe how rapidly visitation numbers drop off for new buildings and amusements.  Popularity a sense of how much the consumer population values a new building or amusement in the Wisconsin Dells is disappearing much sooner than it did 20 years ago.

As a response to this predictable dropping in visitation calculations the local municipality has established a loop that provides publicly collected money through the authority of amended regulations back to the private business operator.  Large Wisconsin Dells area resorts depend upon this publicly collected money being repeatedly distributed into their private business accounts to maintain operation.

The local municipalities use the tax incremental districts to borrow funds through promissory notes that are secured by a guarantee that the acting administration will raise taxes on the residents when the invested project is discovered to be performing poorly.  The new tourism industry projects across the Wisconsin Dells area do not create the longevity required to generate an investment grade property capable of contributing to the long term economic growth.

The most recent loop providing publicly collected money through the authority of amended regulations back to the private business operator is labeled the High End Attraction Incentive Program.  This delivers publicly collected money over to the families operating the large resorts to update and improve their amusements and attractions.

The large resorts need for locally collected public money to update and improve their amusements and attractions indicates the business system has not generated the revenue required to produce the profits demonstrating the success expected of a self sufficient investment grade property.

Friday, December 27, 2019

Wisconsin Dells 2020 BID Adds Expense To Family Vacation

The City of Wisconsin Dells has become mindful of the way taxation has discouraged economic exchange.  The City of Wisconsin Dells (BID) Down Town Business Improvement District Committee is funded by applying a special tax to area property.  To collect the money needed to pay this extra tax the store front operators add to the price of their goods, services, food, and beverage.  This is elevating the price vacationing families must pay.

When you consider this elevated cost in combination with the extra premier resort tax the store front operator must charge - this acts as a deterrent to once simple financial transactions.  This creates costs that are out of reach for many visiting families.

This all while the (BID) Wisconsin Dells Down Town Business Improvement District Committee requires business operators to alter the appearance of their store fronts.  The expense a business operator pays to alter their store front is being added directly on to the price of goods, services, food, and beverages being marketed in the Down Town Wisconsin Dells Commercial District.

In 2020 visiting families will have to spend more money to visit  Down Town Wisconsin Dells due to the (BID) Business Improvement District Committee.  Some vacationers choose not to purchase. Area business modals are seeing how taxation has discouraged economic exchange in Down Town Wisconsin Dells.

Thursday, December 26, 2019

Monitoring Wisconsin Dells TIF District Information

As the new year fast approaches the community members are reviewing the impact the 3 Wisconsin Dells (TIF) Tax Incremental Financing Districts have upon the areas projected economic performance in 2020.

The City of Wisconsin Dells is required to prepare and make available to the public annual reports describing the (TIF) Tax Incremental Financing Project Status, Expenditures, and Revenues.  Online go to State of Wisconsin Department of Revenue Website.  Key in to Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) information site, Press annual reports, year 2018, search Wisconsin Dells and 3 will show on the computer screen.

The City of Wisconsin Dells must file their annual report on TIF's every year by July 1 - so 2019's filing must be submitted by July 1, 2020.  Below lists last filing 2018 for each tax incremental district describing expense, earned revenue, and surplus money generated

TIF 2 Created 11/20/2000
Future costs- 6,816,144
Future revenue- 4,050,000
Surplus 0

TIF 3 Created 7/31/2006
Future costs- 49,761,011
Future revenue- 45,900,000
Surplus 0

TIF 4 Created 7/31/2006
Future costs 306,382
Future revenue 175,000
Surplus 0

Viewing the 3 annual TIF District reports for the City of Wisconsin Dells gives insight in to the benefit the ongoing use of tax incremental districts has delivered for the communities economic well being.


Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Monitoring Lake Delton Wisconsin TIF District Information

The Village of Lake Delton is required to prepare and make available to the public annual reports describing the (TIF) Tax Incremental Financing Project Status, Expenditures, and Revenues.  Online go to the State of Wisconsin Department of Revenue Website.  Key in to the Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) Information Site, Press on Annual Reports , Year 2018, Search Lake Delton and the 3 will show on the computer screen.

The Village of Lake Delton must file a report on the Tax Incremental Districts every year by July 1st.   So the filing for 2019 will be due by July 1, 2020.  One can key in to review the tax incremental financing information on 002 which was created in 9/28/2000.

Under transfer to other fund amount is listed - transfer to sewer , debt payments per residents 620, 590.00 .  The information published on each individual tax incremental financing district can give the reader a sense of the impact this activity is having upon the community.

The activity conducted through the tax incremental financing districts is funded through local taxation which requires the information to be made available to the public.  Readers are encouraged to view the annual reports as a way to monitor Lake Delton Wisconsin TIF District information.

Monday, December 23, 2019

Wisconsin Dells Prepares For Election Year 2020

On December 16, 2019 the City of Wisconsin Dells council  adopted resolution no. 5112 Statute 5.15 (5) (b) to facilitate the combining of wards for reporting purposes. This is implemented for efficiency with the one individual polling location that serves a population of less than 3 thousand residents.

The City of Wisconsin Dells plans to provide one reporting unit for Columbia County wards 1,2.3, and 6.   This enables small municipalities to better manage the work required to conduct a proper election process.

The value of individual ward calculations is diminished for less densely populated communities.  The combining of wards for reporting purposes is expected to simplify the City of Wisconsin Dells election process in 2020.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Can Tax Incremental Districts Make Wisconsin Dells A Year Round Tourist Destination

Being a small rural summer resort community the Wisconsin Dells area store front operators remain open up to the point at which - additional days of operation are just not worth the cost.   The store front operators then close down for the off season - preserving their business modals resources.

The City of Wisconsin Dells and Village of Lake Delton acting administration have chronically used tax incremental districts to divert publicly collected money from being used for the needs of the residents - to create local financial incentives that try to get store front operators to stay open - even after it is just not worth the cost.

This incentivizes Wisconsin Dells area store front operators to travel on a path that is just not economically viable - and is making costs paid by visiting families rise.   For years publicly collected money has been selectively dispersed to chosen store front operators for building improvements with an expectation that the business will appear open year round.

This chronic use of tax incremental districts to create financial incentives has altered the primary function of store front operators across the Wisconsin Dells area.  The primary function of todays Wisconsin Dells area store front operator is to think up new and different ways to receive locally collected incentive money and public property - rather than thinking up new and different ways to create value for the visiting families.


Friday, December 20, 2019

Wisconsin Dells Amends Wizard Quest Agreement At Last Minute Due To Affiliation

The Wisconsin Dells Events Newspaper has reported the City of Wisconsin Dells acting counsel needed to do a last minute amendment to the original Wizard Quest development agreement due to the creation of an affiliation.

All the original work on the Wizard Quest project involved the City of Wisconsin Dells interacting with Concept Attractions Wisconsin Incorporated - their corporate structure.  At the last minute an affiliation was created by the addition of a new party to the agreement - Concept Holdings LLC.

An affiliation indicates an economic interdependence between Concept Attractions Wisconsin Incorporated and Concept Holdings LLC related to ownership, management, and day to day interactions.

The City of Wisconsin Dells Counsel has amended the original development agreement with Wizard Quest to accommodate the affiliation which altered the existing contract.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Lake Delton Post Resort Improvement Residential Property Tax Elevation

The Village of Lake Delton has received a waiver from the State of Wisconsin to extend the chronic use of tax incremental districts.  This enables the acting administration of the Village of Lake Delton to divert public money collected for the needs of the residents and give it to private business operators.

The residents have agreed to allow the Wisconsin Dells area to collect premier resort sales tax and over night lodging tax at the highest levels in the State of Wisconsin.  This premier resort tax is collected to pay for infrastructure improvements - roadway , side walk, curb , gutter - to save the residential population this expense.  This small rural summer resort community lacks the population to make pushing these expenses upon the year round residents a sustainable practice.

The resorts are dispersed in a way that their consumers inhabit and utilize much of the residential area in the Village of Lake Delton.  Think of the resort presence along the Lake Delton shoreline.  This makes improving residential infrastructure - roadway, side walk, curb, gutter,  central to the long term plan of supporting the large resort business modals that have received publicly collected money through the local incentivized process.

But when these large tourism style business modals that have been incentivized ( receive local publicly collected money) perform poorly - we are seeing the Village of Lake Delton syphoning the cost of infrastructure improvements - roadway, side walk, curb, gutter, from the residential population.  Recall the Village of Lake Delton held a public hearing on December 9, 2019 to explain their need to raise property taxes related to infrastructure improvements.

This hefty cost and ongoing need to contribute residential resources to support the continued operation of local tourism business modals is not sustainable.  This activity is further impoverishing the Wisconsin Dells area


Monday, December 16, 2019

Wisconsin Dells Hopes To Be Center Of J1VISA Employment In United States For 2020

The Village of Lake Delton has given the family who operates Noah's Ark 1.5 million publicly collected dollars to build new housing for the J1VISA population.  The new housing is being constructed on Lake Avenue and will include two large housing buildings and a convenience store.  The new housing is expected to hold 600 work experience travelers who come from outside of the Country through the J1VISA Immigration Programming to temporarily live and work in the Wisconsin Dells area.

The Village of Lake Delton diverts public money collected for the needs of the residents and gives it to private business owners to build the new housing for the work experience travelers coming from outside of the Country through the J1VISA Immigration Programming.  The Wisconsin Dells area is a temporary home to more than 4500 work experience travelers coming from outside of the Country through the J1VISA Immigration Programming every year.

The approaching Presidential Election has Wisconsin Dells area resort operators worried.  The acting Administration of the Federal Government has been enacting regulations designed to limit temporary immigration - this has greatly reduced the number of families willing to allow their loved ones to travel in to the Wisconsin Dells area to perform the temporary work that supports the local tourism efforts.

The need for workers from outside of the Country in the small rural summer resort community of Wisconsin Dells has actually grown with the completion of the huge new convention center.  This means the Wisconsin Dells area needs to attract much more than the more than 4500 work experience travelers who have been coming from outside of the Country to temporarily support local tourism efforts.  This makes the visiting J1VISA work experience traveler population the largest group of community share holders in the Wisconsin Dells area.

This growing number of work experience travelers temporarily living in the Wisconsin Dells area has changed the local culture and customs - simply the global population alters the tourism experience through their day to day activities.  As this population is on course to grow -the community expects to see a position created upon the local board to better represent their ongoing needs in 2020.

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Wisconsin Dells 3 Large Projects Compete For Scarce Community Resources

In the Wisconsin Dells area three large projects are actively competing between their committees for scarce community resources.  The three large projects are:

- Elm Street Outdoor Plaza

- Lake Delton Law Enforcement Building Alcan and Miller

- High School Along Rock Arbor State Park

These three large projects will struggle for the available public resources to bring some form of completion to the efforts.  This will include fund raising across the Wisconsin Dells area in varied forms - often described as a voluntary tax.

Families coming to vacation in the Wisconsin Dells area can expect to be asked to contribute to the local projects - fund raising in public places is an accepted practice.  The community is hoping the project committee's will work together and share the scarce resources in a fashion that assures all 3 projects get some support.

Friday, December 13, 2019

Lake Delton Aggressive Residential Property Tax Collection Temporary Tourism Business Modals

The Village of Lake Delton is aggressively working to procure additional money for the municipality by a wide ranging elevation of residential property tax values.  This despite the Wisconsin Dells area's collection of premier resort sales tax and over night lodging room tax at the highest levels in the State of Wisconsin.

The State of Wisconsin has approved an extension for the City of Wisconsin Dells and the Village of Lake Delton on the chronic use of tax incremental districts.  This enables the continuation of local targeted economic subsidies.  This means the City of Wisconsin Dells and the Village of Lake Delton can continue to divert public money collected for the needs of the residents and give it to special selected private business operators in the area.

The Village of Lake Delton has given millions of dollars of publicly collected money to families who operate private business modals in the Wisconsin Dells area.  The value of private business modals serving the tourism industry seems to expire much more rapidly today.   Visiting tourists stop populating the Wisconsin Dells area tourism business modals much quicker than was occurring 20 years ago.

This means customer numbers on newly incentivized business modals drops at such a rapid rate - the municipality has the ongoing need to repeatedly deliver public money to the receiving operation.  This ongoing need to repeatedly deliver publicly collected money to the private business operators drains the municipality revenue needed to balance the budgets for essential community services and pushes greater expense upon the residential property owners.

This simply means the Village of Lake Delton's creative use of incentive programs for local business modals comes at a cost of higher property taxes for residents.

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Does Gasser Road Cross Highway 12 Connecting To Kalahari Drive

The Kalahari Resort was constructed on a parcel of land between a rural residential neighborhood and the interstate.  With the building of the new convention center traffic numbers are expected to increase.  This would bolster local efforts using a land use services approach to change the functional classification of Gasser Road from a rural local road to an urban collector road.

The Village of Lake Delton is recognizing the huge new convention center at the popular Kalahari Resort should be served by an urban collector road.  This would indicate the initial character of the service Gasser Road was intended to provide has changed.  This can prove instrumental in improving the over all success of the new convention center.

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Wisconsin Dells Area Business Modals 2020 Seeking Stronger Staffing Assurance

The Village of Lake Delton has invested millions of publicly collected dollars to build new housing for the temporary work staff coming from outside of the Country through the J1VISA Immigration Programming.  The new housing includes employees who are assigned to monitor the visiting workers presence while they temporarily reside in the Wisconsin Dells community.  This improves the Wisconsin Dells communities compliance with federal customs and immigration laws.

With these ongoing upgrades the Wisconsin Dells area business community is asking for more frequent publishing of the number of J1VISA workers staying in the newly built housing complexes.  For the year 2020 the Wisconsin Dells area business operators are seeking a stronger assurance of available staff for their business modals.

The encouraging of the City and Village to comply with the frequent publishing of accurate numbers of J1VISA visitors staying in the new housing constructed with publicly collected money - is to better inform the business community of the available staff.  This has become an essential requirement for the small rural resort community of the Wisconsin Dells area who is trying so hard to grow their local economy.

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Wisconsin Dells Fund Raisers Target Large Resort Guests

Fund raising as a service is expanding and well accepted across the Wisconsin Dells area.  From September 15th to about April 15th more than 75 percent of the business operators in the Down Town Wisconsin Dells commercial district close for the off season.   The business operators being gone do not provide a significant source of contributions for local fund raising efforts.

Work experience travelers coming from outside of the Country through Federal J1VISA Immigration Programming to temporarily live -make up a large community share holder population in Wisconsin Dells.  More than 4500 work experience travelers will come and temporarily live in the Wisconsin Dells area.   Members of this huge community share holder population typically lack the resources upon arrival in the area to feed themselves until an initial paycheck can be earned.  It is common for a convenience store clerk to ask the customer for a couple of dollars to get some food - trying to make it till they can get a paycheck.  Work experience travelers temporarily staying in the Wisconsin Dells area do not provide a significant source of contributions for local fund raising efforts.

The Wisconsin Dells School District has published current statistics listed by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction that demonstrates 59 percent of the families with school age children in the area qualify for nutritional assistance programming.  Residents of the Wisconsin Dells area do not provide a significant source of contributions for local fund raising efforts.

The population fund raisers are targeting in the Wisconsin Dells area to improve the collection numbers is the families coming to stay in the large resorts.  Families coming to stay in the large resorts in the Wisconsin Dells area can expect to be asked to contribute money toward the many varied fund raisers taking place across the community.  Fund raisers purposely entangle their efforts with large resort guest encounters to elevate collection numbers. Visitors coming to vacation in the Wisconsin Dells area can expect to be asked to contribute to local fund raising efforts.

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Wisconsin Dells Area Tighter Sign Regs As Response To So Many Vacant Store Fronts

The Wisconsin Dells area has a much higher than normal business lease failure rate.  This is due to the high cost of importing our labor from outside of the Country.  This involves numerous signs on the exterior of buildings and the roadside- advertising business modals that are no longer operational.

Now combine that with the bulk of the business modals closing for the off season.  The off season across the Wisconsin Dells area runs from about September 15th to about April 15th.  The visiting population is receiving limited benefit from the signs which lack a certain accuracy.

The City of Wisconsin Dells and the Village of Lake Delton to combat the numerous signs that advertise local business modals that are no longer in operation - frequently amend and tighten sign regulations.   The tighter sign regulations increase the placement time involved, increase the cost , limit the number of,  limit the size, and limit the type of sign that an active business can place in the Wisconsin Dells area.  The cost of conducting business in the Wisconsin Dells area is soaring higher with the proliferation of regulations.

The Wisconsin Dells Conventions HUB Market Place is an online multisided economic platform being developed to integrate local business modals with the non-local visitor population. The Wisconsin Dells Conventions HUB Market Place will deliver an immediate means of advertising to the tourist population with your new business.  Easy to use , and it can be embedded with proven fiscal providers like paypal to facilitate real time transactions that will grow your annual profits.


Monday, December 2, 2019

Wisconsin Dells Pays 300k per year for High School Debt

The City of Wisconsin Dells will pay 300K per year for 10 years with the intention of refinancing the remaining balance owed for another 10 years.  The newly borrowed money is a promissory note for 4.7 million dollars.  Promissory notes can only be taken out for a term of 10 years - the City of Wisconsin Dells expects to need more time than 10 years to repay this debt.

This borrowing is being done very early in the process of constructing a new high school out along Rocky Arbor State Park.  The need to raise an additional 300 thousand dollars per year to pay down a loan has the community questioning what next years budget process will look like.

The City of Wisconsin Dells was able this year to craft a passable budget - but there is no money in risk reserve.   As the varied City committee's continue to compete for scarce public resources - the residents will need to remind the common council to keep their focus on assuring the essential services needed to maintain the community at an acceptable level.