Lebo: The TIF and the School Board

When a TIF was proposed for the Galleria, the Mt. Lebanon School Board shot it down. Is the Board going to be receptive to an anti-TIF argument again, in connection with the Zamagias proposal? Here's the text of a letter that Bill Matthews recently sent to Board president Joe Rodella, with copies to the rest of the Board, and to the Commission:

Dear Joe:
In classic logical fallacy , October’s Mt. Lebanon Magazine is courting community support for “The TIF.” My first reaction was “Oh my goodness!”
My second was to put pen to paper – but I am not sure where to begin. The $100,000 heated sidewalk? Or the now $95,000 parking spaces (each)? Or the other “infrastructure” improvements which might be standard fare for any development of $500,000 condominiums and retail shops?
After reading the Magazine, I am unsure what evaluating a hotel or apartment building has to do with whether or not the Zamagias Properties development warrants a substantial public subsidy? Besides, those ideas were off the table 18 months ago.
I also question how can we take incremental credit for EIT to be generated by residents of Washington Park, if a considerable portion of potential residents may already reside in Mt. Lebanon? My mom now lives in Woodridge, as do bunches of other long-term Mt. Lebanon residents. I assume Main Line residents have similar roots. Why will Washington Park be different? A more meaningful analysis would identify the projected “net new” EIT.
The Municipality’s supporting information for this column projects an average household (EIT) income of $161,234 for Washington Park. This might be accurate, but if the “net new” is what matters, using the median household (EIT) income for all of Mt. Lebanon would be more instructive. This number is likely in the $85,000 – $95,000 range.
Then there are these questions and answers from the supporting information on the web site:
Q. Why are we “subsidizing” Zamagias with Tax Increment Financing? A. We are not
Q. Why are we “giving away” tax revenues to Zamagias? A. We are not
Oh yes we are – on both counts – if the Municipality is victorious with this tax diversion.
Another huge point of contention is the TIF/NID discussion . The continued use of TIF and NID in the same context demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of these economic development tools. But for giggles, say NDC developed the site and established a NID – which effectively is an assessment on their residents and their residents only. We could still have all the purported economic benefits of Washington Park and an additional $3,000,000+ in real estate taxes (present value), to boot.
It may be simplistic, but I still see this TIF as unnecessarily supporting a project where a portion of the mortgage is paid with taxes, while the rest of the community pays our mortgage and our taxes.
Justice Louis D. Brandeis offers some insight into the TIF dialogue:
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."
I do not comprehend the zeal in the Municipality.
I do appreciate the School Board’s thoughtful and purposeful consideration of the issue.
Respectfully,

William R. Matthews