| From: | Alan McCarter |
| Sent: | Wednesday, September 20, 2006 2:13 PM |
| Subject: | RE: Village of Riverside TIF |
I am not a subject matter expert, but offer some input for consideration.
When I lived in Oak Park from 1988 to 1999 I paid relatively high real estate taxes due to the multiple failed attempts to create commercial tax revenue from the Special Business Tax District they created on Lake Street. I believe this was “pre TIF”, so the efforts were localized.
The net effect of shutting down Lake street, creating a mall, failing, tearing out the mall and re-opening Lake street resulted in 10+ years of NO tax revenue from the commercial taxing district and the burden fell on the homeowner for supporting the schools and village infrastructure with ever increasing Real Estate taxes.
To gamble for 23 years with a locked in tax base seems a bad plan. We have momentum today without entering into this TIF strategy, and I can’t imagine why the Riverside Swim Club and Swan Pond would EVER be part of this plan.
Alan McCarter
