Fishers Town Council once again is showing its true colors.

Fishers Town Council once again is showing its true colors. Some how I can’t understand the concept of helping the rich developers get richer at the expense of the citizens of the town. It seems everything is aimed at helping developers. The real questions becomes why? If Fishers is such a great place to live and one of the fastest growing places in the state, do you need to hold out a carrot to a car dealership, to a food market, etc and then to pay for some of these carrots with tax the citizens who want to go out to eat at a restaurant. The Town Councils has set up is called TIFs - Tax increment financing, is a public financing method that is used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure, and other community-improvement projects. TIFs were originally sold to state legislatures as a tool to redevelop blighted areas. Places like Gary or Detroit would be prime examples not Fishers. Abuse of the TIF concept is where development would have occurred anyway. In Fishers a prime example are the new car dealerships, with 80,000 well to do people in the community do you believe the car dealerships would not have come without tax help. The dealers will come where the buying public has a checkbook and Fishers is one such place. Most of 116th is a TIF district, do we need tax incentives for 116th street development. Does Fishers need TIFs at all. Would the Town Council please show me a blighted area in Fishers. One of the major criticism about TIFs is that “The TIF process arguably leads to favoritism for politically connected developers, implementing attorneys, economic development officials, and others involved in the processes.” Now that would never happen in Fishers? Hmm. Oh I think it has. Another adverse effect is on school districts, lets say a tif is used to expand housing, such as a large apartment complex and the result is more school age children, yet the tax income is frozen to repay the TIF. Also the tax structure could be frozen as the needs for more police, fire protection increase and the revenue doesn’t meaning the others of the town will have to pay for this. Another example of what is wrong. Then the Council wants to have a new tax to help get more development, like loaning over ten million dollars to build the ugly depot apartments in front of town hall. Part of this was the concept of mass transit and up and coming people would live in the apartments and hop the train downtown. Well it looks like mass transit is slowly dying and the apartments could become a white elephant and in a few years go out of business leaving the $10 million up in the air for the taxpayers of Fishers. Look at their fancy design but who is going to want to live in an apartment above a restaurant or by the road when fire engines roar out at 2 or 3 am. (Firemen please make sure you ring your bell and siren full blast as you pass the apartments.) Another example of what is wrong. It seems that they willing to grab at anything to try and use the current buzz words. And anyone who does not lock step with them comes under serve criticism. Maybe we need more people to question what they are doing. But then again this is Fishers where the elected official forgot to listen. They are the only ones who best.