The Dallas Morning News reports that government officials in Cedar Park recently approved a plan to create a special tax zone in the city’s downtown area. The plan is expected to generate $160 million in investments in the area. Such tax zones are used throughout the state to generate funds to improve the infrastructure in a target area. Improved infrastructure, the thinking goes, will attract investment.
The tax zone would have likely attracted little attention outside of Cedar Park, except for the fact that the mayor, members of City Council, and members of the planning board own 25 properties within the zone.
Until January, the mayor and City Council members were required to disclose their property holdings. The City Council repealed that requirement shortly after approving the new tax zone.
Those who were interviewed by the paper claimed that they had followed the letter of the law. Perhaps so. But even if their action was legal, it reeks of cronyism. In this case, city officials played both sides of the crony exchange. They rewarded themselves with government favors.
The city officials who will benefit argue that many other properties owners will also benefit from the special tax zone. But that is irrelevant. The fact that others will also benefit does not change the fact that they used their position to pass an ordinance that inarguable benefits them. They are using their government position for personal economic gain.
These shenanigans would be much less suspicious if City Council had not repealed the disclosure requirements. Perhaps they are following the letter of the law, but they changed the law in a way that allowed them to hide their property holdings.
Adding to the suspicion is the fact that the mayor and council members had not filed the required disclosures since 2008. In other words, the people who write the laws in Cedar Park couldn’t be bothered to follow those laws.
Only time will tell whether something nefarious is going on in Cedar Park. But the fact that such a conflict of interest is even possible illustrates what can happen when government expands beyond its legitimate functions. If city officials were not trying to spur development, this would not be an issue.