I join letter writer Tyler Bickford in praising the recent school board vote against TIFs for a Strip District development (“The City School Board Was Right to Reject This TIF for the Strip,” Dec. 18). 

To my knowledge, no public official has challenged the ubiquitous granting of tax breaks and public subsidies to private developments since then-city Controller Tom Flaherty. From that era of Mayor Tom Murphy’s grandiose development schemes, public officials have fallen over each other to grant tax relief or a generous helping public hand to every project that comes before them. One can’t blame developers for asking for a handout, because everyone seems to get one!

Of course, every TIF, every public “incentive,” drains the resources that support public services. The use and abuse of the common nonprofit tax dodge only adds to the reduction of the funds available for schools, transit, roads, parks and other urban essentials. As a result, politicians hypocritically cry out for “fiscal restraint” — austerity — after they have invited private concerns to freely drink from the public trough.

Certainly, if private banks are unwilling to fully finance the schemes of developers, there is every reason to doubt why the public, instead, should enable their projects to go forward.

Kudos to the four school board directors who had the courage to question business as usual.

GREG GODELS
North Point Breeze

First Published: December 23, 2016, 5:00 a.m.