Tuesday, February 28, 2006
TIF Giveaways in Elgin
Sunday’ Elgin Courier-News had a column by managing editor Mike Bailey entitled, “Time to end the giveaways.”
It was about Elgin’s Tax Increment Financing District giving developer RSC & Associates another $2 million “to continue developing a site from the former Joseph Spies & Co. building.”
To lure the developer, the Elgin City Council “agreed to pay the generous sum of $9.4 million in incentives,” Bailey notes.
“Largely abandoned downtowns are bitter fruit sweetened only by the generosity of the taxpayers via their elected representatives. How much and how long this largesse continues is an open issue.”
But, in Elgin, an unknown sewer line was discovered. That added another $500,000-plus to the subsidy.
Bailey criticizes the city’s “disclaimer that all of this money is coming from tax increment financing money and not taxpayers” as “disingenuous.”
The Elgin editor does not make the point that was forcefully made by School District 47 and 155 officials, that every dime lost by local governments from a tax increment financing district will be taken from the pockets of the rest of us.
Instead, he argues
It was about Elgin’s Tax Increment Financing District giving developer RSC & Associates another $2 million “to continue developing a site from the former Joseph Spies & Co. building.”
To lure the developer, the Elgin City Council “agreed to pay the generous sum of $9.4 million in incentives,” Bailey notes.
“Largely abandoned downtowns are bitter fruit sweetened only by the generosity of the taxpayers via their elected representatives. How much and how long this largesse continues is an open issue.”
But, in Elgin, an unknown sewer line was discovered. That added another $500,000-plus to the subsidy.
Bailey criticizes the city’s “disclaimer that all of this money is coming from tax increment financing money and not taxpayers” as “disingenuous.”
The Elgin editor does not make the point that was forcefully made by School District 47 and 155 officials, that every dime lost by local governments from a tax increment financing district will be taken from the pockets of the rest of us.
Instead, he argues
The money generated from these (TIF) districts was never intended to be given away to a private developer to enhance his profit. It was intended for the public good in the form of site work, intersection improvements, road work and—perhaps—relocating a sewer line.McHenry County Blog will be watching how much the Crystal Lake City Council decides to subsidize developers in the TIFs it has approved in the last year.
But not providing a safety net for a private developer’s profits.
