TIT, TAT, TIF
Filed under: Development, Fiscal Policy, Maryland, Salisbury Politics, Taxes, Transportation
What is a TIF? TIF stands for tax increment financing. A city, or county, floats a bond issue where the tax revenue from a specially created TIF district is pledged to pay off the bond issue. Salisbury City Council is considering just such an arrangement to complete Phase III of the Northeast Collector Road.
Now in theory this isn’t a bad deal. The city would sell the bonds. It supposedly won’t affect the city’s bond selling capacity or credit rating (because there would be no recourse on the city). Property taxes from the property within the TIF district (above the baseline) would be set aside to pay off the bond and once the bond was paid off the revenue would go to the city’s general revenue fund. Now just in case there wasn’t enough revenue from regular property taxes, the city would also create a Special Financing District (of SFD) which would cover the same area as the TIF district. A special levy could also be placed on properties in the district to make up for any revenue shortfall.
By doing this, the Collector Road would be completed faster and the developer of Aydolette Farms realizes an increase in their property value and everyone walks away a winner. Sounds great, right?
If you are the developer it’s a fabulous deal. With the Northeast Collector Road completed ahead of schedule you property value really goes up. You (and / or the people that buy the houses you build) have to pay property taxes anyway. Now those taxes are going to finance the road that makes your development economically feasible.
If you are the average taxpayer (in the rest of the city) it’s not such a great deal. The city and county are having to provide services to the homes in the TIF district and aren’t receiving the additional revenue.
Is there a better alternative? There are actually several. The best deal for the citizens of Salisbury is to create a Special Financing District and let the developer and residents of that area pay for the road. The road gets built and the average taxpayer currently living in Salisbury won’t have to pay for it. Sure the developer is going to scream bloody murder, but that’s life. In other parts of the state you have to pay to play. When the bonds are paid off, the developer’s or residents’ property taxes go back down to the same rate as everyone else. In the meantime, that’s the price you pay to reside in the “Land of Pleasant Livingâ€.
There is a compromise solution. You set up the TIF district and the SFD. Let half of the cost be born by the TIF and the other half by a special tax. In one sense this is fair. Other citizens will use the road, so let them pay for part of it.
Of course we know what is going to happen. The developer will get their TIF, get their road and make a mountain of money. You wouldn’t expect anything less from the City Council that has given us non-stop annexation, non-stop development and a city where families are no longer welcome, neighborhoods are being turned into slums and crime is on the rise.
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What about the TIF that’s been approved for the old Salisbury Mall — by both the City and Wicomico County — $20 Million of tax revenue that goes back to the developer (payment of its costs)?
If my memory serves me correctly, the current Phase III of the
Northeast Collector Road was supposed to be Phase I. What happened?
Where did the money go that was allocated then? I think that Willy Wonka’s
“money minting power point machine” should work on the finances to upgrade
the infrastructure like antiquated sewer lines that were designed to handle
sewage by gravity and are now, probably, pressure lines handling effluents
from recent annexed developments. I have heard,on many occasions,Willy
Wonka state that the new developments are required to have larger
diameter pipes in order to improve the infrastructure. That’s swell, until
you tie in a 12″ or 24″ line into an existing 8″ or 10″ line. Let the
developer build the roads required for their development. Let the City build
the Northeast Collector when it can afford it. I believe the Northeast
Collector was conceived for and by developers in order to get a free ride
with road construction costs. It seems as though the developers on the
completed portions of the road all of a sudden have access to their property
that was previously landlocked. It makes sense to me! Let the taxpayers
build the developers access roads. By doing so, I imagine a great deal more
take home $$$,$$$,$$$ in their pockets. The road is obsolete, you know? I
believe the bypass has provided the North/South route on the East side of
Salisbury more than adequately. Who really benefits from the Collector Road?
THIS NEW FORMAT SUCKS
Sorry you don’t like it. We need a three column format and will be experimenting over the next week or so. Keep commenting so we can get an idea of what you like.
You should know however, that when we went over to the previous theme we received a ton of complaints and then people seemed to like it. It was more spacious. I’m still looking at a bunch of three column formats.
Larger type would be really nice.
I agree, the larger type is so much easier to read. Please consider that down the road.
Yea, the comment text box goes clean off my computer
screen. I have to make hard returns just like a
typewriter carriage. When my words go off the screen
that means trouble for an old “hunt and pecker” with
short term memory loss.
This theme is called “Red Stripes”. The print seems to be a little bigger and there isn’t that problem with the comment boxes.
Thanks dolfarn for pointing that out. I wouldn’t have caught it for days (if then).
Let me know what ya’ll think. I’m going to work on a change with the comments section next.
The page is very legible now. Nice font. Thanks for fixing the runaway comment box.
This is much better, thank you.
This is the new comment system. These are supposed to be threaded comments. This allows a reader to add a comment (new thread) or reply to a specific comment. By replying to a specific comment, all replies are together with the original comment.
With this narrow (about 45 character space) comment width, scrolling is a pain on the a**.
Can’t it do full page margin?
Terrible format — the one you have been using is much better
Notice that this is the second reply to the comment by joealbero.
Sorry, can’t go full margin. It might be possible, but I don’t have the know how. I might suggest using MS Word or Wordpad if you want to write a long comment and then just paste it in.
Sorry chief. Everytime we change themes we get complaints. The las time we switched to the one you seem to like we got all kinds of complaints. Once you get used to it, you won’t mind as much.
The big problem is that we really felt the need to go to a 3 column format. I really wanted 4 columns, but it was a little narrow.
Actually, the original incarnation of monoblogue had this very same theme. The reason I didn’t care for it was the lack of tab space. But three column is the way to go IMHO.
As for the Northeast Collector, I say hurry up and get the damn thing done. When it’s finished it will hopefully clear up some of the traffic on Business 13. I think the 13/50 bypass is fine if you live south of town but where I live it’s a pain to go east to the bypass then go west to go north.
Half and half may be the best solution but I think you’re correct about what will likely happen.
If you get a chance, let me know what you think of the threaded comment system.
I like the threaded comments. Also, I was reading where you used the “Journalized Sand” theme for a short time, which is the one I use at least until I get tired of it. Hopefully WordPress 2.0 has more choices.