A Subsidy By Any Other Name
TIF’s ARE NOT SUBSIDIES! This will be the mantra heard from Mayor Tilghman, Mike Dunn, Gary Comegys, the “Tilghman Times”, the old mall project developers and a host of others at Monday night’s Salisbury council meeting.
The Queen and her court either believe that if you tell a lie often enough it becomes true … or the voters of Salisbury are the biggest bunch of rubes ever to fall off of the turnip truck. Not only is the old mall project TIF a subsidy, Mike Dunn’s own witness at the last council meeting stated that it was.
In his zeal to appear responsible (I know, it’s impossible), Mike Dunn asked attorney Keenan Rice to explain why the TIF for the “Road to Nowhere” was not a subsidy. Of course, Mr. Rice did just that. The problem is that his explanation also used the old mall project TIF as an example of using a TIF to provide “incentives” for the developer.
Sorry Mike. An “incentive” to a developer is a subsidy by the taxpayer.
Joe Albero has provided a link to an excellent article on why TIF’s used as an incentive to the developer are a damn poor deal for the taxpayer. In the case of the old mall project TIF it’s even worse.
This subsidy is for a residential development. Residential development uses far more in services than it pays in property taxes. This means that the other taxpayers of Salisbury will be paying even more than if this subsidy was for a commercial development.
A responsible city council would be extracting concessions from these developers rather than pledging the future of our children. Your only remedy is to elect three responsible people this spring and hope that they have the strength of character to rescind this travesty.
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