I voted no on Tuesday — against giving our local government leaders the right and power to decide whether some new or growing businesses will be eligible for property tax exemptions for as long as the next decade. Proponents of the Economic Development Ad Valorem Exemptions call these tax breaks “incentives.” I just call them kick-backs.
I realize our community has a broad concern – to help the many folks in our town who are struggling without jobs. I believe my community wants to do right – by creating situations where more jobs might be created and more money might be spent and more economic stability and growth might be achieved. But I do not agree with the means.
Do we really want to make our economic beds with businesses that will only do business with us if we grease their palms with rebates and incentives? Is this really the standard for attracting business to which we aspire as a community? Isn’t there a better way to build our economy beyond cozying up to fickle businesses and industries whose modus operandi is to pull up stakes and move whenever and wherever someone dangles a fresh, new, bigger carrot?
I’m worried, like so many others, about my community’s future, but rather than using taxpayers’ dollars to entice out-of-towners or larger businesses, I would have preferred to support a measure that gave local leaders powers and access to incentives that rewarded and protected and helped the thousands of Mom & Pop or long-time businesses that have invested years of their lives and their profits right back into this community. I would have preferred a whole lot of money being spent, for example, to prevent Winn-Dixie from pulling up stakes in one of our most under-served, under-employed, and under-the-poverty-line sections of town.
People are saying incentives, kick-backs, call them what you will are “just the way business is done now” – it’s the trend across the country, they say.
That may be … but a few years ago, the trend was flipping homes and giving out mortgages to people who couldn’t afford it – all in the name of economic development, making money, and enjoying the good life. We are living the nightmare of what jumping on those bandwagons has cost us.
And besides, character is the same for an individual as it is for a community.
Can you imagine a teacher offering to give part of her salary back to a school supervisor if he hired her? Can you imagine being new in town and telling your local grocer that you will continue to shop at her store only if she promises to give you free apples and strawberries for the next ten years, even if it means your long-time neighbors might have to pay higher prices for such produce? Can you imagine a prominent Sarasota lawyer stealing a client away from a Desoto County attorney by offering kick-backs on attorney fees? Now, consider all this being done with taxpayer dollars.
But for me, this vote came down to a very simple question: When did what essentially amounts to kick-backs in business become the accepted norm? And, in Sarasota, this community which we all talk so much about treasuring for its pristine beauty, unspoiled beaches, and for its extraordinary commitment to the higher pursuits of culture, arts, and the intellect – shouldn’t we aspire to better?
I say yes. And that’s why I voted no.