Frisco,TX & the profit from the FEDC

[Chrissy Jackson]

As a current resident of Frisco, Texas I often wonder where much of the cities immense amount of wealth comes from. Although Frisco does have a surplus of wealthy business headquarters located in the city limits, a load of wealthy individuals living in the city, and most notably and most recently, the opening of the Dallas Cowboys new practice facility The Star. Although those 3 things do play a major part in the city’s wealth I knew there had to be more than just that. To find this out I went on the City of Frisco website and found an interesting article about the city’s financial growth.

 

The article I found talks about the immense amount of money Frisco has saved and how they managed to save so much. This is all thanks to the Frisco Economic Development Corporation, also known as the FEDC. In 1991 the city’s voters approved a half-cent of sales tax to fund economic development in Frisco. The FEDC is funded from the city’s sales tax not property tax. The use of the raise of the sales tax being funded straight into the corporation whose main goal was to facilitate economic development, helped boost Frisco giant economic development. The FEDC is still to this day active, and plays an active role in the development of Frisco. An independent study was done during 2016-2017, over the first 25 years of the FEDC and their impact on the growth and development of Frisco. So far from FEDC economic developments and projects that it has been associated with in Frisco, they have produced a cumulative economic impact on the city of about $31.1 billion dollars. The fact that their success alone is not the only reason why Frisco is so prosperous, but just one of few is astounding, and shows what good results a city can have if great minds all want to accomplish the same goal.

 

I believe that the FEDC impact on the growth of Frisco has been phenomenal. Like all change it must first start with the willingness to sacrifice of the voters. The voters of 1991 were willing to scarifies a little raise in their taxes so that way their great city could be prosperous in the future. The choice to increase the sale tax instead of property tax was a brilliant idea, probably my favorite section I read out of the entire article.  Sales tax, is something that anyone who buys something in Frisco will have to pay. So, you not only have the citizens of Frisco participating in the growth of the Frisco and the FEDC but anyone who buys a good in Frisco, no matter what city or state they are from. The brilliance that people could come together and decide to keep a corporation like this going for now going on 27 years is great. I believe other cities of Texas local governments should take the time and look at how the FEDC was created and established and try and start something like this for their city. This is a great way for a city to raise money to help, make their city prosperous and bring economic development and revenue in. However, like all change it would have to start with the willingness of the voters of that city to sacrifice a little raise in their sales tax for them to be able to create a corporation like the FEDC that specifically helps increase the economic development of that area. 

Article Link:  http://www.friscotexas.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=350