Regional and Urban Design Committee

Subsidies for development. The public sentiments

The public takes a dim view, when it comes to money for developers and investors. Tax breaks and subsidies are variably called extortion, bribes, nepotism, or corruption but rarely an investment in the future of a city. Popular sentiment pits neighborhoods against downtown,  affordable housing against convention centers or old downtown against downtown expansion areas. Most city residents are convinced that too much money flows into the pockets of those who need it the least. It doesn't help that city government and developers are in a tie for the bottom rank in public opinion, maybe still ahead of Congress and lawyers. The fact that today "money for developers" rarely comes from budgets but from mortgaging predicted proceeds, that only materialize if the development in question gets built, is too complicated even for some local politicians to grasp and suspiciously smacks of CDO's (Collateralized Debt Obligations) and other creative tools of virtual money creation that brought us the financial crisis. Some economists point out that the race to the bottom (of taxes) between cities in a relentless competition for investors rarely benefits the public while it depletes public resources.