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January 3, 2006
Giving Away the Store to Get a Store
Tax increment financing is no bargain for taxpayers.
It's been a while since Tax Increment Financing (TIF) has been discussed on this page — in NYC the program has been assigned a more bullish moniker, PILOTs (Payment In Lieu of Taxes).
Here's commentary by Daniel McGraw from Black Enterprise magazine about how TIFs have been added to local goverments' bag of tricks to promote the welfare of politically connected corporations.
At a time when local governments' efforts to foster development, from direct subsidies to the use of eminent domain to seize property for private development, are already out of control, TIFs only add to the problem.
Originally used to help revive blighted or depressed areas, TIFs now appear in affluent neighborhoods, subsidizing high-end housing developments, big-box retailers, and shopping malls.
Posted by lumi at January 3, 2006 7:53 AM