Payments in lieu of taxes, the economic incentives given to developers for investing in taxable infrastructure that creates a public benefit, can be creatively reconstituted to help eliminate the racial and economic disparities in urban America.
As a former Fortune 500 executive and long time Baltimore resident, I have seen and been a part of many innovative, "out of the box" solutions to major obstacles and challenges. This same approach can be applied to convert "developer" PILOTS into "community" PILOTS, a new financing facility.
In short, groups of communities would qualify for performance based "quality of life" incentives after a development modeled after the public-private partnership of One Baltimore. A clarion call could be made to communities to "earn" additional financial incentives for infrastructure projects.
There would be baselines established for many key factors of enhancing the quality of life, and communities would be incentivized based on their attaining and surpassing goals. The factors would include public health, education, public safety, job development training and business efficiency.
For example, in the area of public health, communities would be rewarded for the number of residents examined and educated about health disparities and preventive measures. Individuals could be tested for the health issues with the highest incidence, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and asthma.
In education, communities would benefit from higher school attendance, graduation rates, and test scores. Similarly, communities would be incentivized for lower dropout rates, lower suspensions and acts of disruptive behavior.
Effective and well functioning parent-teacher organizations would be a significant indicator. The community performance would be akin to the performance of a well-managed, high performing business and would be rewarded similarly.
In public safety, community outreach and activism would focus on reducing juvenile truancy and inappropriate behavior, reduction in property damage and devaluation, and greater personal accountability by the adult members of each community. Those tactics should result in lower business insurance losses, higher operating revenues, lower property losses and less theft.
The "savings to the business and public sectors" will be converted into a semi-annual community PILOT that will be expensed against a community business plan drawn up by a planning group of key community stakeholders, technical advisers and members of the public-private partnership.
Identifying and rewarding community residents for taking concrete actions toward improving the quality of life in their neighborhoods can be the greatest demonstration that all Baltimoreans are on the same ship and that we will rise and fall together. Baltimore, with its glitzy skyline and fabulous Inner Harbor is now being challenged, as are many other cities, by the great disparities between its haves and the have-nots.
This opportunity won't come again. Those in and out of Baltimore who care for this city must cast aside old thinking and old actions while formulating a 21st-century approach that features sharp critical thinking, common sense and new solutions to the problems caused by the lack of job opportunities, education, transportation and job skill preparation.
Alvin Lee, Baltimore