It is late on a hot Wednesday night and lacking the ambition to do new thinking I am resorting to pulling up old posts like Building A Model City In Madison. Actually there is some justification since there is a bit of an update reported in the Wisconsin State Journal. Dean Mosiman continues some good reporting in the following article.
Madison Aldermen call for more TIF scrutiny: “Alds. Mike Verveer and Judy Olson, members of the leftist political party, are proposing a series of changes to the city's tax incremental financing (TIF) policy to ensure projects don't harm the city. … "If we are going to meaningfully shape TIF projects and get the biggest bang for the taxpayers' dollars, then we have to end the first-come, first-served rush by developers to get the city's limited TIF funds," Verveer said.”It’s amusing to see the State Journal refer to Alders Verveer and Olson as belonging to the leftist political party, as if there were any representatives of limited government on the Madison City Council. I suppose the truth is that anytime a group of twenty people are assembled there will be a gradient of opinion on social issues, and it looks like some on the left end of the left side are not comfortable with Mayor Dave and the big developers being all buddy-buddy on building projects.
There is even some evidence around that Progressive Dane is not all that thrilled about trolley cars. It seems the Greens have enough common sense to understand that busses can go get the poor where they live, rather than hoping the poor will move themselves to live near fixed rail systems.
