Brother can you spare 9 million?

Have developers figured out what patsies our leaders in local Knox County government are? Much has been written about TIF's here at KnoxViews. Even those like myself that cast a wary eye towards TIF's admit that in theory they can be progressive and provide a reasonable return on investment.

But when every project has to have a TIF to be viable one has to question what is going on.

In Friday's Knoxville News Sentinel Roger Harris writes that the James Doran Corporation that is building the Northshore Center has come back to City and County government and said that if they do not get a 9 million dollar TIF for roads that the entire 250 MILLION DOLLAR PROJECT MAY NOT BE VIALBE.

Who can really blame them? Isn't this just smart business? It is easy to see that Mayors Haslam and Ragsdale have sent a message to the development community that if you want some TIF money you just have to ask for it.

Let's review. The reason development is supposedly good is because it expands the tax base. Unless of course the first 15 years are used to pay off the roads and infrastructure. All across this nation cities and counties are imposing impact fees for roads, schools, and utilities so that infrastructure is NOT paid for by all the taxpayers. The ones that create the need pay for the associated infrastructure.

But not in Knoxville. Here all of the taxpayers pay for the infrastructure through TIF's. Think of it as opportunity costs. If the tax base does not increase for the first 15 years it must be made up for elsewhere. So what good is development if you receive no tax base for 15 years?

Does it seem like just yesterday there was a City project that had to have multiple injections of taxpayer money to be viable? What happened to the Five Points Village Plaza? After over 4 million dollars of taxpayer money was "invested" it went belly up in five months. Yes, Virgina, five months.

Local government must stop sending the message that projects are only viable if taxpayer money funds them. Do we really have to bribe people to come and live here? Or is this just a transfer payment to powerful developers who control our government?