Dear Editor:

The development plan that Boothbay selectmen have created (without public input) seems to me a huge gamble with the quality of life in the Boothbay area and the pocketbooks of its taxpayers. The hope that infrastructure improvements will bring new and substantial businesses to Boothbay is likely to be a pipe dream. Its economy depends heavily on its scenery, summer weather, serenity, small community cohesiveness and human values, which bring second home owners, retirees, and tourists to Boothbay. This is what essentially pays the bills. A costly infrastructure project (a round-about, new roads, water and sewer lines) will disrupt daily life and harm existing businesses. It will discourage tourism and property sales. It may also cost the taxpayer a great deal of money.

If enough new businesses do not come, there will be no new tax revenue to pay off the 2.5 million dollar bond at ("estimated") 4 percent interest (actual cost: at least $3,550,000). But what incentive would a business that’s not tourist-based and pays substantial taxes have to come to this “tax incremental financing district?”
It will exist at the end of a dead-end peninsula with average schools, high property taxes, high state income taxes, and over an hour away from a sizeable airport.

If new substantial businesses do not come, there will be no new tax revenue to pay off the bond. The Boothbay taxpayer will be left holding the bag. The beneficiaries will be those current businesses (which would seem to include the Country Club) that will have their taxes frozen at the current rate. The rest of us will continue to see our property taxes rise.

A few years ago the citizens of Boothbay soundly rejected a proposal by the previous town manager and the then selectmen to extend water and sewer lines to the industrial park. It was a costly proposal, with an unrealistic justification: to attract enough more businesses to the park to pay for the project. The underlying rational for the new proposal is equally unrealistic and gargantuan in comparison. I think the town manager and selectmen should grow the natural and human resources that attract people and money to Boothbay.

Fred Kaplan
Boothbay