Sunday, May 25, 2008
Fieling Good
I know, I promised to stop using the nickname, but this is so Fielgood:
In fairness, the discussion probably needed to be tabled. However, as I read yesterday's article about the dispute over TIF's, I thought, "this calls for a consultant." After all, the city has plenty enough money to get the best possible opinions that money can buy, even if we just pay somebody half a million to read, and probably water down, an old BGR report. Anyway, what's more important, consultants or code enforcement?
I don't want to be too hard on Fielkow because the city obviously needs a policy on TIFs, and Willard-Lewis has legitimate concerns. But, the tendency to hire consultants to make every difficult decision is either blatantly irresponsible or just cowardly. I hate to keep bringing up the same, but we've been hearing about the city demolishing the wrong houses while truly blighted houses go uncited for almost a year -- the rest of the country noticed nine months ago. If budgeting and manpower decisions don't have something to do with this, something is really wrong.
I can't recommend the BGR report strongly enough. Every section of the city seems to need its own TIF lately, but that won't leave much for the city as a whole, unless the magic TIF wand produces an exploding pie. Since the BGR has its own biases, similar criticisms can be found here and here.
Seeking to lower the temperature and end the discussion, Council President Arnie Fielkow said Willard-Lewis had raised a good point. He added that the council will soon hire a consultant to review the administration's proposals and, as part of that review, will hold public meetings on the issue.
In fairness, the discussion probably needed to be tabled. However, as I read yesterday's article about the dispute over TIF's, I thought, "this calls for a consultant." After all, the city has plenty enough money to get the best possible opinions that money can buy, even if we just pay somebody half a million to read, and probably water down, an old BGR report. Anyway, what's more important, consultants or code enforcement?
I don't want to be too hard on Fielkow because the city obviously needs a policy on TIFs, and Willard-Lewis has legitimate concerns. But, the tendency to hire consultants to make every difficult decision is either blatantly irresponsible or just cowardly. I hate to keep bringing up the same, but we've been hearing about the city demolishing the wrong houses while truly blighted houses go uncited for almost a year -- the rest of the country noticed nine months ago. If budgeting and manpower decisions don't have something to do with this, something is really wrong.
I can't recommend the BGR report strongly enough. Every section of the city seems to need its own TIF lately, but that won't leave much for the city as a whole, unless the magic TIF wand produces an exploding pie. Since the BGR has its own biases, similar criticisms can be found here and here.
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All I want to know is which fat-cat business and CWL campaign contributor was counting on 100% public funding.
The old BGR report mentions two big proposals for her district that have been around for years. Just because I said CWL has a legitimate concern don't think I don't suspect she has somebody in mind.
Without a cap are limits on TIFs, Blakely's plan is little more than "let the market decide," but letting it decide with government help, IMO.
Actually, I hadn't read the BGR report until Saturday. I was surprised at how much I agreed with it. I think there needs to be some kind of cap agreed upon before any more TIFs are approved. Individual TIFs always sound wonderful, too many leave a city broke.
Without a cap are limits on TIFs, Blakely's plan is little more than "let the market decide," but letting it decide with government help, IMO.
Actually, I hadn't read the BGR report until Saturday. I was surprised at how much I agreed with it. I think there needs to be some kind of cap agreed upon before any more TIFs are approved. Individual TIFs always sound wonderful, too many leave a city broke.
To be fair, I didn't see anybody that has anything to do with the old Plaza shopping center site on her donor list. But I don't know all the names involved and I didn't go over it too thoroughly. Even without anything untoward going on, one problem is that politicians will support anything that supposedly brings businesses and jobs to their districts.
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