Dear Editor:

Boothbay Register reporter Ryan Leighton deserves credit for a detailed review of the TIF proposed for Boothbay Center encompassing the golf course development. As a Southport taxpayer with no association with the country club or its developer, I was curious about this proposal.

In summary, this TIF retains in Boothbay the county tax that would be demanded on the increased property value due to development in the TIF area. This tax revenue would stay in Boothbay. And since in this case the principal developer within the TIF zone has asked for no sharing of retained revenue (“credit enhancement”), this TIF benefits Boothbay 100 percent.

It is no wonder then that groups who wish to generate county revenue, like the Maine Center of Public Interest Reporting, don’t like the use of TIFs. They look at TIFs as a lost opportunity for more revenue from us.

Boothbay taxpayers should not be fooled. In the eyes of the county and the state, Boothbay is very “rich” because our real estate is highly valued. Most of us understand the difference between having a highly valued piece of real estate and big income — but the county and state have shifted more revenue demand to property valuations through a series of maneuvers.

While TIFs have been designed to help “blighted” areas develop, and Boothbay hardly looks “blighted,” our valuable real estate masks a more base problem: absent good paying jobs, fewer can afford to live here. This is a problem only destined to get worse as increased valuations fuel a revenue hungry county and state.

There can be no better example of the power of bringing good paying jobs to the peninsula than the two other TIF benefactors: Washburn & Doughty and Hodgdon Yachts. This TIF will help develop infrastructure changes, some of which would be required regardless of the TIF, that should attract even more jobs.

This TIF is not a gimmick; it simply resets the tax equation that is driving us out of our homes and promotes jobs that will allow us to keep them. I urge the voters of Boothbay to vote in favor of this TIF.

Tom Myette
Southport