Ok, before the Lockeans revolt, one must hand it to a Mayor who stands up against Tax Increment Financing as a “bad idea”. Meeker believes the North Hill East project is not a project that city tax dollars and debt should be going towards.
“Given all of these factors, it does not make sense for the city to
intervene in the market to cause development to occur that the market
would otherwise not support,” Meeker wrote. (Seriously impressive and direct!!)
He also “stated three reasons for his opposition to Kane’s request: It’s
bad public policy, Kane is underestimating the development he could
undertake without public money, and a state law prohibits any refund of
paid property taxes.”
Of course, most economic development types just step around the law and don’t call incentives “refunds”, they simply call them “grants.” In fact, local economic developers often simply structure their “grants” to occur after the property taxes are paid. But a rose is a rose is a rose.
(HT-CH)
