I am writing about status of the TIF for Port Covington ("Board of Finance sends Port Covington TIF legislation to City Council," May 9). While this project may well be a great benefit to Baltimore, we feel the city has to make the case to the public for this TIF of over a half a billion (with a "b") dollars — the largest in the city's history. There also needs to be more clarity and justification on what the community benefits are and whether they are goals or commitments. From what we have seen so far the proposed community benefits seem limited.
We recently held a forum on this issue that included a diverse panel and audience discussion. It also included an overview on the basics of TIFs. The panel covered developer and community perspectives on TIFs and a lot in between. This discussion was augmented by a moderated discussion with the audience. While there were a range of opinions in the room, the vast majority of the attendees stated they didn't have enough information to support or oppose the TIF. This was related to another key issue raised at the forum which was that there needs to be much more transparency regarding development of the TIF, what it is for, how much and what the community benefits are. It was also recommended that TIFs should be better monitored in a visible way.
If a large incentive package for Port Covington is so important then the city should be educating its citizens on the costs and benefits on the project and taking input on this issue. This has not happened to date, and there needs to be more to this effort than a couple City Council hearings. This project is significant enough that there needs to be broad understanding and support across the city in order to move forward.
Richard Eberhart Hall, Baltimore
The writer is executive director of the Citizens Planning & Housing Association.