Creating Equity and Accountability for the Taxes Citizens Pay

Discussion post

I am currently stationed in Del Rio Texas, a small border town of approximately forty-thousand residents. This city is not the most affluent with a median income of $52,000 which is highly skewed by the military and border patrol population which resides here but was not born here. One awesome economic development opportunity that Del Rio is currently providing is the “Main Street Program” which aims to help aid a deteriorating historic district by providing grants to business owners to remodel old construction. Their mission is “By revitalizing and preserving the central business district, partners will work toward an improved quality of life for the whole city, creating an attractive, bustling destination for residents, tourists, and travelers”. This project’s overarching goal is to provide individuals an opportunity to influence the economy without being totally overrun by large Fortune 500 companies. The project has currently helped provide grants to over twenty small businesses in the historic downtown district. These grants have helped cover roughly 50% or more of the total costs for each renovation specific to each building. Also, the second economic development downtown is the amazing tax incentives that building owners receive if they can put in over 50% of the total building costs in renovations. If individuals can do this, they are given a 10-year tax abatement on the property to help subsidize their investment. Blakely et al. (2017) state that tax policy has been at the forefront of economic development and Federal or local tax incentives help steer private investment into an area of need. The authors also bring an understanding that this issue is long-term and tax incentives can fall on deaf ears for quite some time. The project has experienced almost all local planning as well. The city of Del Rio takes applications from business owners and decides which projects meet their intent of the grant. The local government has taken this project under its wing even though the grants are not solely provided by them. This type of system can impact the community negatively or positively if the views of the government do not align with the local population. However, this current project has been highly respected by the individual in the community and all grants seem to have been warranted with a process that is beneficial to the private business. Also, these projects have had a decent turnaround from application to the finished project. On average these projects take 6 months to a year depending on the scale that is needed. The main configuration for this project is governmental and private sector linkages. The city once had a thriving downtown that experienced some struggles during economic recessions and never really recovered. More than ever, private businesses are flooding the main street district due to its historic value and low property costs. With this private sector buy-in, the local and federal government has been able to implement grants to help keep these businesses open since money in this town can be scarce to most. McDonald (2016) describes accountability, discrepancy, and change as the key terms of collaborative stewardship. These same ideas must be evident with the Del Rio Main Street project. The citizens and private business owners are holding the local development accountable for the changes once the grants are awarded. The city is showing accountability by letting individuals see the plans and finished products on their main website. Change not just to the overall look of the downtown area but change to the application process can be seen to help business owners access the grants they deserve. Community economic development is happening all around us but often times it is left in the dark and citizens do not understand what is happening. The city of Del Rio has implemented ways to create equity and accountability for the taxes its citizens pay. The process can always be improved but it is nice to see change happening in real time in a town in which you reside.

“Del Rio TX.” Main Street Program, 
Blakely, Edward J., and Nancey Green Leigh. Planning Local Economic Development: Theory and Practice. SAGE, 2017.

McDonald, O. M. (2016). Collaborative stewardship: An analytical approach to improving quality of life in communities. Suffolk, VA: Grace House Publishing. ISBN: 9780983565277.

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