KNME's In Focus segment, January 16, 2009, has an interesting interview with Mayor Marty Chavez. He was asked what he thought of TIDDs - tax increment development districts. Not surprisingly, he loves 'em and said TIDDs had been "demagogued to death."
The Mayor summarily dismissed critics concerns and said he said he wished TIDDs had been around 15 years ago so he could have used them to build the valley bridges. He repeatedly referred to those who would question their use as being "No-Growthers."
TIDDs enable a portion of the taxes generated by the new growth in one area to pay for the infrastructure necessary for that development. The proponents, including the Mayor, vastly oversimplify their explanation of the development process for the sake of this argument. And for SunCal's sake.
The argument goes: all infrastructure is paid for by the government. The Mayor said the taxpayer will either "pay for it now or pay or it later." He also said, "Government builds infrastructure" and the "developers create wealth." So TIDDs support "wealth creation." However, the previous comprehensive plan policy, adopted by both Albuquerque and Bernalillo County for the fringe or "Reserve" area and planned communities, would have required infrastructure to be built by the developer. It was called the "No Net Expense" policy. SunCal TIDDs represent a hugely profitable loophole.
SunCal is a land development company. Not a maker of solar panels, movies or flying cars. They subdivide and sell or build for others. The others may, or may not, generate the wealth. The others could just as well generate that wealth within the existing city. There has been no demonstration of need or demand for more industrial infrastructure for the, as yet imaginary, wealth generators. There has been no demonstration that SunCal is uniquely positioned to find new wealth-generating tenants. More half-built subdivisions isn't "wealth creation" for anyone but SunCal. SunCal makes subdivisions and no one has demonstrated we have a shortage of those.
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