TADs revisited one last time
Iwant to start this week by personally thanking Mac Eubanks for his Letter to the Editor, printed in the Wednesday, Sept. 16, edition of the Rome NewsTribune. It was a wonderful example of how people can disagree in both a civil and thoughtful manner.
Last week in this space I tried to explain how Tax Allocation District financing works.
Every time I sit down at the keyboard with my thoughts, they are intended to evoke memories or perhaps spur some thought or discussion on an issue.
I get your basic point, Mr. Eubanks. Nobody likes paying property taxes. Nobody wants to pay increased property taxes. (Although
I don’t think anyone wants to see the value of their property go down, either.)
Developers, the big guys if you will, whether filthy rich, or crazy gambler, are putting forth their money to develop something of benefit to the greater community. The Ledbetter company has used TAD twice locally to build new shopping centers and bring new restaurants, retailers and jobs to Rome.
TADs are about economic development, not a tax break for the rich and famous.
Yes, someone who may be better off than Mr. Eubanks, and certainly better off than myself, is getting a break. But you have to remember that that developer is still paying the same taxes they were paying before the development took place. It’s called a baseline tax level.
Olive Garden, Shane’s, another location for Las Palmas landed in RiverWalk. Chipotle, Panda Express, Texas Roadhouse, Old Navy and others will be in East Bend because of TAD financing. They are providing jobs for Romans, they are bringing in sales taxes that benefit all of us and help keep property taxes as restrained (note I didn’t use the word “low”) as possible.
Mr. Eubanks wrote, “Guess I’m just one of those who has different ideas on the kind of things governments should approve and pay for with my money.”
In a TAD arrangement, the developer pays his taxes based on the increase in the value of his property. It’s his taxes that have gone up! But TAD allows a local government to return a portion of his increase back to that developer, for a specified number of years. Once the agreed upon number of years is up, the developer pays full freight.
John Doe’s taxes, or my taxes, aren’t involved at all — unless you want to play the extrapolation game. Developer XYZ builds a shopping center and then we need more police to patrol the area, we need more garbage men to pick up the litter. Then I guess you could make the argument that our taxes have gone up.
Is the tradeoff worth it? In my opinion, yes. The Ledbetters have stated that the new East Bend Center will provide north of 400 jobs.
Others might not agree, and that’s OK. Sometimes we just have to agree to disagree.
The people we elect to office ultimately have to make those decisions and I understand it’s not an easy job.
If you have a different opinion, the Letters to the Editor forum is always available at romenewstribune@RN-T. com and I appreciate Mr. Eubanks for taking advantage of it. I hope that more of you do.
It took a hurricane ...
... to blow out the heat and humidity of our Northwest Georgia summer.
Maybe.
I have crossed my fingers and offered a prayer or two that we will actually have a fall this year, not just a one- or two-week transition from summer to winter as seems to be the case more years than not.
My calendar, even the one on my entirely too smart phone, indicates that spring and fall last three months, 13 weeks. Have you experienced 13 weeks of spring or fall any time in recent memory?
I love the colors of fall in our mountains. Taylor Ridge and Johns Mountain offer some of the most beautiful mountain vistas anywhere during late October and early November, if all of the precedent weather conditions permit.
This year I’ll get to see the mountain colors like I’ve not seen them in many years.
Thanks to Harbin Clinic ophthalmologist Dr. David Herren who removed nasty cataracts from both of my eyes over the last five weeks, I realize that the sky really is a beautiful blue, not a dull gray.
I can’t wait until my little 4-year-old “Bring One for the Chipper” Northern Red Oak starts to change color.
I will confess to you that when I first went to see Dr. Herren I was scared to death my condition might have been macular degeneration or glaucoma, something that could not have been as correctable as cataracts.
Special kudos to Dr. Herren and the staff at the Surgery Center of Rome for the care they offer our community, and the aftercare they continue to provide.
Some things are just 100% more beautiful than I had ever realized, even though I knew the beauty was there to begin with. I just appreciate the beauty so much more now.