As Shawnee Mission’s first tax increment financing districts expire, evidence that things don’t always go as planned

The promise was there, twenty years ago, as cities began to dabble in a new way of raising money for hard-to-develop land. Cities, the county and school districts would forgo revenue from higher property values on newly improved land. Instead that money would go to developers for their costs. After a couple of decades, those costs would be paid and that revenue would be a boon to be reclaimed by the schools and cities.

It was called tax increment financing, and back in the 1990s, only a few Johnson County cities were brave enough to dip in a toe to an arrangement that is now a regular feature of city council meetings.

But 20 years is now about up on some of the oldest of those first Johnson County TIF districts. And as the clock winds down, it has become apparent that things don’t always pan out as expected.