Why Is Neosho’s Dream Such a Nightmare to Some?

Back in 2006, I wasn’t following Neosho politics at the level I follow it today.  My world at that time revolved around the Neosho R-5 School district and my duties on that board.  But I wasn’t totally immune for what was happening in the city.  One program I do recall hearing about was when then-Governor Matt Blunt started a new initiative called “DREAM” and Neosho was selected as one of the 10 inaugural DREAM communities in the state in hopes that downtown areas that had seen declines could be revitalized.

At the time, it sounded good to me.  Our downtown area had been dying for years and any program that could help stop that trend seemed like a good thing to try.  But as things progressed and work began on the plan, it seemed that the DREAM was for some becoming a nightmare.  So why was a program designed to “help” a community turning into a target for opposition?  Well, I’m not sure, but I do believe there is some misinformation out in the community that needs to be cleared up.

The three areas I hear about the most are:

• Why only focus on the downtown area?  Other places need help too!
• DREAM is designed to bring commercial businesses back to downtown.  Why build more apartments?
• All this program does is give money to people to remodel a building and then they get to charge rent.  That’s not right!

Let’s see if I can help a little.

First – Why downtown?  To start, DREAM stands for Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri.  DREAM’s initiatives focus on providing technical and financial assistance to help revitalize downtown areas and leveraging existing public resources to attract new private investment.  Ultimately, it works to put back into use and/or increase the productivity of land and buildings in a downtown area.  While I agree that there are a number of issues that Neosho has to work on (and a number of areas leading to downtown that need work), DREAM is designed for “downtown” revitalization.  That’s why the focus is on downtown.

Second – We need businesses, not apartments!  Well, DREAM doesn’t claim to focus just on commercial development…it’s a focus on reinvestment in any form – housing included.  Any investment, residential or otherwise, is well within the scope and purpose of the DREAM plan.  While some may find it best to make Neosho’s square a commercial center like it was 40-50 years ago, that’s probably not a realistic expectation.  But keeping buildings from being empty and falling into disrepair does seem like a reasonable goal and DREAM does help with that goal. 

Finally, why pay people to fix up buildings so they can make even more money?  There is no doubt that by being a DREAM community, Neosho (and private investors) have access to various public financing programs and a number of professional services from the state to assist with reinvestment.  While DREAM may help make available certain state programs (such as historical tax credits) to those that qualify, it’s important to note that the DREAM initiative does NOT provide cash awards to those who do the development.  Investors downtown must still provide the private funds to pay for the reinvestment and take the risk of making that investment payoff.  It’s not simply a taxpayer-funded way for business owners to get new buildings using the public’s dime.  There may be incentives, but you still have to spend money to get those incentives. And a majority of those incentives require job creation and retention, or at a minimum, significant private investment.  There is no free lunch.

So to me, while the DREAM initiative may not be perfect, it does seem to work in making downtown areas a more attractive place to invest/reinvest private money.  With the move toward malls and shopping centers, we’re never going to have the retail environment that once filled Neosho’s square.  But we can, with these type of efforts, reinvent and restore areas that have been left vacant and make those building productive once again.  That’s why DREAM came about.  You only have to look around the square to see than monies ARE being reinvested and buildings are being refurbished and being made productive again.  (And those same buildings are back on the tax roles at a much higher value.)

Today, there are 35 dream communities around the state who are benefiting from the program.  In SW Missouri, they include Neosho, Aurora, Webb City and Lamar.  It may not be perfect and some may disagree with the plan, but at least for Neosho, it does appear to be doing what it was intended to do.