I was pretty disappointed in the Strib's TIF articles. TIF is easy to shoot
at. You just yell "corporate subsidies" "corporate subsidies" and tell
people how evil it is that government gave businesses money.
But the Strib never gave an answer for how you attract businesses to a city,
how you create jobs, how you ensure your residents have the goods and
services that they need, how you build a healthy, diverse economy, and how
you build a tax base (yes, those evil businesses are paying 50% of the
property taxes in this city and for everyone who is advocating for
additional government spending for things like affordable housing,
infrastructure maintenance, etc, the money has to come from somewhere ).
I'm not a fan of TIF but the Strib should have provided more balance by
discussing what happens when you don't do any economic development and that
TIF is really the only tool that local governments have to provide an
incentive for business development. There are lots of major cities in the
country that have downtowns that are completely dead and are surrounded by
neighborhoods that are slums. That could have been our fate.
Maybe you are a firm believer in the free market. That if there is a need,
the forces of the free market will take care of things. But we know that it
isn't true. We know that many businesses have a bias against locating in
center cities. We know that there is discrimination that keeps businesses
from locating in poor or ethnically diverse areas. We know that businesses
who went out of business half a century ago have left polluted lands that
would not ever be used again without some sort of intervention. We know
that it is very hard to assemble the number of parcels of land to be able to
build something on. We know it is cheaper to mow down a cornfield out in
Maple Grove than it is to build in Near North. The free market doesn't work
all that well (for another very good example, look at what is going on with
the housing market).
Personally, I always think it is cheating when you shoot at someone else's
solution without providing one of your own. As I said above, I'm not a
fan of TIF. But at least I'm willing to acknowledge that there is a need to
do something and that TIF is the only real tool in our toolbox right now.
The Strib should have at least balanced its reporting with that discussion.
Carol Becker
Longfellow
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