Two good editorial have appeared in the Oshkosh Northwestern over the last two days. The first, "Amphitheater needs more civic exposure," makes a plea for the city to take some long overdue action to ensure greater community use of the Leach facility. I urge citizens interested in this issue to contact me and/or other Councilors. The more people come forward to express dissatisfaction with what is happening (or not happening) with the Leach, the more likely a majority of the Council and city administration will act.
The second editorial, "Caution needed before teeing up TIFs on fairways for development," may represent the first time in the history of the paper that an editorial raises some healthy skepticism about a Tax Incremental Financing proposal. I don't know what kind of case the developers will make, and of course we need to keep our minds open to all possibilities, but on the surface it would seem almost absurd to even suggest that TIF could be used to redevelop golf course land. I'm looking forward to hearing the arguments in open session.
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T.I.F districts are little more than welfare for the rich Simply put, it is the council funding developers - in hopes - whatever they are building will be around for the long term thus returning profits to the city. The council has been gambling with the cities money for too long, and I think it is time to put some sanity back into the system. Developers have no stake in sticking around for their long term, and once whatever project is finished they reap their profits and move on to the next hick council they can schmooze into funding some ridicules project. I recommend that this council begin talks with other cities in hopes of setting up a regional economic planning commission. Once a regional plan is in place “business men”, aka The chamber of commerce can longer “extort” money from the public coffers by making cities compete for economic opportunity. I say again, what i have said many times, people with a business state of mind cannot be trusted with the public good.
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