Yesterday on my bike ride, I observed a man waving at me vigorously---so I stopped. " Are you the Observer?, he asked. "Yes," I replied, not knowing what would come next.
"Well," he said "Why not make all of Evansville a TIF, and shorten up all these meetings? It would save a lot of hot air!"
Stunned, I had no immediate reply. Yes, I was speechless. I told him I would think this over and reply on the blog.
There would be lots of advantages....All East Main residents would be elegible for "historic siding" that would be covered under TIF even if it did not add one dollar of "tax increment" to the home value. After all, it is important to improve the entrance to Evansville.
After long and hard thought, however, I realized what the problem would be. In a city that is deeply concerned about conflict of interest, if all of Evansville were included in a TIF district, all of the council members would have to recuse themselves from the vote and hence none could occur.
I do want to thank the resident for the idea however. If you have ideas that you want to share, post on the blog. Thanks.
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Personally I don't think private citizens should be allowed to use Tif district money for their private homes, because there is a very chance that the city will never recover this money, as they would from a business. I also find it funny how the council picks and chooses what they will approve when it comes to improvements in the tif district. I am not a big fan of the ' historic siding' , regardless of whose house it is on.
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