Hats off to Charlotte city councilman Don Lochman for trying to drill that notion into the heads of fans of tax-increment financing. As we predicted last year, city boosters want to use that mechanism to fund some of the gaudy wish-list of arts projects Uptown, in this case the Afro-American Cultural Center.
But as Lochman notes, directing property tax money toward that end, or other building projects, by definition makes the tax money unavailable for roads or public safety. That’s fine if you really think arts projects are a primary function of local government and safe streets less so. And we don’t believe that, right?
Right.
