The purpose of the Carmel Redevelopment Commission is to maximize TIF!
By maximizing TIF they create debt instruments to add infrastructure. Infrastructure is added to attract new taxes that hopefully results in additional TIF growth and then the cycle is repeated. So long as buildings are occupied, by lessors paying the market rate and is actually productive space the formula should work.
This is not however the way the Brainard Administration chooses to use TIF.
Note all the vacant and for lease space as you walk, bike or drive around town. It is in every commercial location no area is exempt. O’Malia’s, Marsh, Scotty’s Brew House and other large structures sit empty, offering no opportunities or services to the community. Today 14% of Main Street businesses between Woody’s Library and the Monon Trail are vacant. That may not be a bad average for the entire Carmel area but when it is that section of Main Street it is particularly disturbing.
They currently have tens of thousands of square feet of space coming online in Midtown. Who will occupy the ground level retail that is necessary to create a healthy environment for walking, income to pay investors and tax revenue? What is the plan and why haven’t they shared it? How many square feet of new space is coming on line in how many locations and what is the cities plan to fill these vacancies they helped finance on the public dime?
What if we have a downturn and temporarily the process goes in reverse and rent doesn’t cover taxes and no TIF is generated to pay the debts? That is when they look to you the taxpayer as the guarantors. Then the CRC just bows out of the picture and leaves you, the taxpayer, holding the bag.
The colors are all wrong in this brilliant graphic. It should start out as green and proceed to yellow before it descends into the final guarantor of the debt – YOU the taxpayer through a Special Benfit Tax when it turns completely red.
SBT is the bottom line in their own chart. You would have to be a fool not to conclude it was an option no matter how many times you are reassured there is nothing to be concerned about that – ‘it will never happen’.
It is rich they list the positives of the Special Benefit Tax but no mention of the obvious pitfalls.
What we have here is the work of a Master Illusionist who is building houses of cards. More buildings that without government subsidy would never be constructed and more borrowing are in your future with a Jim Brainard 7th term.
Think about it and as you observe the empty spaces currently for lease and all the new nearly complete construction. One would think there has to be a plan. You might ask that question of the Mayor and his Council.
