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Monday, December 03, 2007
ACTION ALERT: Stop Tax Increment Financing for Sprawl
The Albuquerque City Council Meeting where the bill that limits TIFF financing will be discussed is set for today at 5:00 PM in City Council Chambers in the basement of the City/County Building at One Civic Plaza. Please contact your City Councilor about this matter and attend the meeting if you can.
From :
We are asking all 1000 Friends Albuquerque members and community allies to Take Action by contacting your City Councilor to urge him/her to stop allowing Tax Increment Financing on Albuquerque's edges.
This coming Monday, December 3, our Albuquerque City Council will consider a bill that limits Tax Increment Financing for use only to support urban redevelopment efforts in the city's core. 1000 Friends of New Mexico and a number of other community-based groups support this measure.
Why? Tax Increment Financing currently allows huge developments in outlying fringe areas to be subsidized to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. This subsidy robs economic activity, jobs, homeowners and vitality out of core neighborhoods. Learn more about Tax Increment Financing in ABQ.
Help 1000 Friends and other groups put a stop to another tax give-away to developers. Take Action now! Tell your City Councilor:
- Keep Albuquerque neighborhoods', not billion-dollar developers', best interest in mind. Vote YES to prohibit Tax Increment Financing for vacant land at the edge.
- Remember Albuquerque's $1.7 billion backlog in infrastructure needs in the already-built community. Fix-it-First!
- Remember that home values, small businesses and economic activity in their districts are negatively impacted by subsidized growth at the edge.
For more - keep an eye out in the Albuquerque Journal for this Op-Ed, submitted recently by 1000 Friends and the SouthWest Organizing Project.
Please contact 1000 Friends of New Mexico at 848-8232 if you have any questions. We appreciate your time and your dedication to making Albuquerque a better place.
Sincerely,
Gabriel Nims, Executive Director
Also see our earlier guest blog by Gabriel Nims.
December 3, 2007 at 09:13 AM in Corporatism, Environment, Local Politics, Sprawl Development | Permalink
Comments
Where exactly is sprawl??? Is Taylor Ranch sprawl? Is Paradise Hills Sprawl? Is Ventana Ranch Sprawl? Is Westgate Sprawl? Are the home owners in these areas the enemy because they decided to make a home in these areas??? Are the Democrats that live here actually Republicans? Taylor Ranch, Paradise Hills and Westgate have been around longer than 25 years!
It is interesting because Rep. Antonio Maestas (D) (last year) moved to this area, so did Councilor Cadigan (5 years ago), so did Auditor Balderas (this year and lived in SW Albuquerque before he was a State Rep in Wagon Mound) and a few other "progressive" Democrats. These are all clients of Soltari, Inc. and they also push the whole idea of how SPRAWL is this city's number one enemy. Well aren't they contributing to sprawl? In Councilor Cadigan's case his house was built in the Bosque. The bosque?! This was once considered to be off limits to environmentalists everywhere, but I guess it was okay to bulldoze for the sake of building his house.
Oh, the hypocrisy!
Posted by: Westside Voter | Dec 4, 2007 9:23:19 AM
If Sun Cal quickly develops hundreds of thousands of acres, that would be sprawl, especially if the taxpayers are required to pay for all the infrastructure out there for 25 years, plus who knows how much more money directly to the developers from TIFF financing. This isn't right.
TIFF was designed to encourage infill development in the older parts of town, not new development way out in the boondocks. Hundreds and hundreds of recently built homes on the West Side sit empty or are being foreclosed in the housing bust and more are expected to follow. Older parts of Albuquerque are falling into disrepair and need taxpayer money to upgrade and maintain the places where people already live. Why give that money away to the rich developers of Sun Cal? If the developments are so desireable let them pay for it themselves as the free market would dictate.
Albuquerque has learned much since the days of the development of Taylor Ranch and other housing on the West Side. We've seen the kinds of problems that are created by unrestrained development that comes too fast and without proper planning for the good of the city. We don't want to do that again and create more of these problems.
I think people living on the West Side should be the most concerned about more uncontrolled, explosive development without proper planning for traffic and other things. You would suffer most on your already packed roads.
Let's keep TIFF for funding what it was intended to fund-infill development in older parts of town. We don't want a city full of crumbling neighborhoods on the East Side and sprawl development as far as the eye can see on the West Side.
Posted by: | Dec 4, 2007 11:17:17 AM
So what you are saying is that our City can only do one thing at a time? -Or- are you saying that its okay to have already bought and live in a home on the westside as long as you turn around and say that no one else can because their house is SPRAWL?
So you are telling me that I have "ghosts" living next to me? There are no foreclosures on the eastside of the river? Foreclosure is a Westside problem?
My neighborhood is vibrant... actually we are walking it this weekend. Want to join us? Contact precinct chair Joe Boersig! He lives in Ventana Ranch, you know us Democrats in Sprawlville!
Posted by: Westside Voter | Dec 4, 2007 3:07:02 PM
I'm saying that I don't think taypayer money should fund development we don't really need right now to the tune of millions of dollars. Sun Cal develops subdivisions in many places and does it without funding like this from taxpayers. Why do you think we should pay for this?
Councilor Michael Cadigan worked for months on a compromise with Sun Cal to get them to promise something of value for all the money they would get but they refused. The hell with them. If they want to develop land out there they can go about it without the taypayers funding it, just like most for profit businesses.
Why would you want to make what's bad on the West Side even worse? Something tells me you'd make money off of it or you wouldn't be so stubborn about it.
Posted by: 1000 Friends Supporter | Dec 5, 2007 10:51:00 AM
