What's going on, Albuquerque?

The TIDDmas Wish

Listening to a developer talk about Tax Increment Financing and Tax Increment Development Districts is like listening to a teenager tell you what you want to hear about how responsible he'll be with your car as he's asking for the keys. Smart kid.

Just like this is smart growth.

Here's the SunCal company line:

Local governments have found that traditional development, outside of TIDDs, sometimes does not pay its own way. The easiest and most profitable development is simply housing sprawl. But new residences alone impose burdens on existing infrastructure and public services. They rely on the existing local economy for jobs to support the new residents and existing roads to take them to work. The taxes paid on residences are insufficient to pay for public services.

This contains great truths. Sprawl is profitable and easy and taxes are insufficient to pay for public services. Then this statement - repeating planning as if saying it 3 times makes the TIDD wish come true:

TIDDs are a tool that governments can use to avoid these problems. They provide a method for developers and local governments to agree on a development plan addressing economic growth, infrastructure, amenities and other factors in a new development. A developer performing according to the plan can be reimbursed for some of the infrastructure costs the company previously advanced. Planned, controlled and orderly development in the TIDD permits the simultaneous development of housing and jobs. It permits residents to live near their work, and minimizes their use of pre-existing infrastructure and their reliance for employment on the pre-existing economy.

Couple things – first, I didn’t hear any heels-clicking or see red shoes. No Go. Second, if the plan doesn't address anything outside each district, it isn't very planned, controlled and orderly. Especially with the potential for an unlimited number of districts. Lastly, minimizing use of pre-existing development (i.e. the existing community) is neither desirable nor possible. If preexisting things, like homes and streets and schools aren’t aren't relied on, rebuilt and reinvested in on a continual basis, they will die. Neighborhoods are not protected by using incentives to direct new growth and investment away from them to the edge. On the contrary - it’s infill or downhill.

The developer spokesperson continues:

The TIDD process makes the developer responsible for economic development and job recruitment sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the residential community being constructed. The developer must provide commercial and industrial space for employers and the infrastructure to serve it.

So this will only work if the TIDD developer is successful at recruiting new businesses that all the City, County, State and private economic development agencies have been unable to recruit thus far. And the entire idea hinges on the assumption that they just need new industrial space. Build it and they will come. Young brave captains of industry will swoop into town with investment capital to build flying cars and rockets just because SunCal asks.

Color me dark skeptical.

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Comment by jim on December 23, 2007 at 12:28pm: I'm suspicious that Marty may be trying to line up a future employment opportunity for when he leaves office. I sure hope the taxpayers wake up to this scam. We could all be paying for this well into the future. I can't see where encouraging sprawl on this grand of a scale would do anything but lower the quality of life for current residents.

Comment by bleve on December 23, 2007 at 2:25pm: What's often not mentioned by the developers or opponents of TIDDs is that the developers including the NM Homebuilders Association, in collusion with many NM politicians, passed the The Development Fees Act. This works to keep communities from implementing impact fees on developers and in doing so...

"successfully lobbied to exclude
libraries, community centers, schools, projects for economic development and
employment growth, and affordable housing from the list of items payable by impact
fees. This means that a city may elect to charge a developer its fair share of the costs of
new roads, sewage systems and the like, but the city may not charge the developer for the
schools, libraries or community centers that new homes will require."

So all the talk by TIDD proponents about community building is basically a farce and something they've been documented as working against for some time... this while providing substantial campaign contributions to politicians who had sway in getting the Development Fees Act Passed.

So basically, the citizens of Albuquerque are going to finance one of the largest developments in the country, where the money generated will be siphoned out of state, and the developers are not legally mandated to use the tax payer dollars they will be receiving for schools, parks, community centers, etc.

The quote above comes from the DEVELOPING REAL INFLUENCE:
THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY AND THE NEW MEX... ... Thanks to Laura Paskus for posting it in the Abq. Progressives group of DCF.

Comment by Mario on December 23, 2007 at 5:06pm: What gets me about this whole argument, is no one cried foul when Mesa Del Sol was granted their TIDD. What gives, just because this is on the Westside, everyone is against it? I'm not saying a TIDD is a good thing, but where was the discussion before?

Comment by jim on December 23, 2007 at 5:47pm: I think the residents of sleepy hollow have finally awakened from their slumber. There is so much double talk regarding these TIDDs that the reality of their impact got lost in the spin.

Comment by John on December 23, 2007 at 5:50pm: The thing about Mesa del Sol is that the state had a big hand in it, and personally I was more comfortable with it because they had already started creating jobs (solar company and movie studios) and had a definite plan. Mesa del Sol also bowed to the city council's demands for more affordable housing, which I was happy to see.

Suncal...I don't know what they're doing and there's no public investment, making a SunCal TIDD essentially a public subsidy to a private developer. And they're getting that money without listening to our demands.

Comment by bleve on December 23, 2007 at 5:53pm: Mario... not sure, I was living out of town during that period. I was under the impression that there were different variables but I'd be interested to hear the differences... anybody?

Regardless, I for one am glad that there is more conscious discussion regarding this subject, westside or not. I think developers and their paid politicos for too long have gotten away with explaining how we the public should support their get rich schemes with a patronizing pat on the head, all the while pulling strings to pass legislation that screws the communities they propose to be building.

Comment by jim on December 23, 2007 at 5:57pm: Between Mesa Del Sol and all the new subdivisions created and now stalled in mid stream on the Westside, we have enough vacant lots and housing to last through the next decade. Without a major source of new employment this is unlikely to change. Just how many retirees and trust fund babies do we think we can attract?

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