Apparently, its too hard for some people to read a TIF policy document that’s been around since last June and a memo to the plan commission that’s two months old (August) and make a few clerical changes to the document.
To add insult to injury, the Mayor asked me to write yet another memo about the minor changes I suggested at the Board of Estimates despite the fact that the TIF Coordinator took notes and the staff to Board of Estimates took minutes and had the changes noted. Excuse me, does he realize I’m not his staff? He’s got 8 staff members plus there were 4 TIF staff team members in the room. Why should I be the one to write a memo making minor changes such as changing .05% to .5%?
Besides, if after four months he can’t read a policy document and a plan commission memo at the same time without getting confused, a third memo is going to make things even more confusing.
Finally, when the Mayor remarked that he “could use more time” and I reminded him it has been a few years, his response was “well, then another 2 weeks won’t matter.”
So, why is the Mayor stalling on this? Why doens’t he want a new TIF policy that DMI, Smart Growth Madison, the TIF Coordinator and TIF staff team, and people like me and Tim Bruer all agree needs to get passed to end the uncertainty surrounding TIF requests? Does he like giving away TIF dollars ad hoc? After all this time, the Mayor has not said what his concerns are, but he sure has made sure he stalled passing a policy. At this point, I think the public should demand an explanation. After all, these are our tax dollars.
