Here's why TIFs Don't Work

My views on Tax Increment Funding (TIF) has drastically changed over the years and it continues to do so. I started out thinking they were necessary to lay out the groundwork funding for large projects most of which are around the Harbor. As time went by, I began to wonder why that was required. I also wondered when that became the norm instead of the exception which led me to write my tongue and cheek "Go Fund Yourself" post. After reading about the West Baltimore E-Coli spread through the City Waterpipes I became 100% that TIFs simply don't work.

First of all, let me explain what our TIF is. It's taking what can sometimes be hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars which they pay in the hopes of getting back in the form of services that will benefit them and giving them to developers whose developments most likely aren't anywhere near the areas of the City that need these services so desperately. If I'm suggesting that TIFs are robbing the City's most vulnerable population and putting that revenue into developers pockets for things they the developer should be on the hook for, you're right.

Lets take a walk around Port Covington and Harbor Point; two of the City' most up & coming and glamorous addresses. The views, the proximity to highways, the glamorous Neighborhoods surrounding them and the slew of amenities at their doorstep proves that marketing these locations for Residents, Office Tenants, Retailers, and Hotels won't be a problem even in the worst economy. Indeed, these projects have taken off substantially during the COVID times. Why then, do developers come to the City with their hands out saying that the only way these projects will only work  if the City pitches in? Short answer; because they know they can.

Now, lets take a walk around West Baltimore. More specifically Sandtown, Harlem Park, and Midtown Edmondson. It feels worlds different than the glitzy high rises of Harbor Point yet in actuality it's just a few miles. They're located in the same City, their taxes are supposed to help them just as Residents near the Harbor are quite obviously helped by yet another redevelopment project which ups their real estate values. It's much more basic than that in West Baltimore.

West Baltimore is currently in a crucial emergency because they can't drink their own water. There is an e-coli presence that is forcing Residents to boil their water just so they can drink it. It's always funny that these infrastructure emergencies happen in only Baltimore's poorest Neighborhoods and rarely in TIF zones. It's almost as if TIFs take away money that could have been spent to upgrade the drinking water pipes and a slew of other deficits in these Neighborhoods and have given them to private developers.

If I sound like a broken record by repeating the fact that Harbor Neighborhoods are robbing poorer Neighborhoods in a City they're supposed to be helping, it's because it's true. These hundreds of Millions if not Billions of dollars wasted on these "gifts" to developers have drained the life blood of the rest of the City while it should have been going to help these poorer Neighborhoods all along. How many more times does West Baltimore have to be overlooked in order for the system to tell the developers to go fund themselves?