Commentary: The City Council will be voting on the creation of a Tax Increment Development District ("TIDD") for the vacant land on the site of the old Las Cruces Country Club. This TIDD transaction is being ramrodded by a Zachary Wiegert of Nebraska for a private investor group. Mr. Wiegert has established a number of anonymous LLC's for the TIDD lacking any transparency and making them unaccountable to the taxpayers.
The TIDD is meant to help realize private projects at blighted sites at minimum cost to the taxpayer. Yet the data and calculations used to establish the need for the TIDD, the amount of TIDD necessary to realize a project, and likely developer profit rates, are all permanently hidden, not only from public view but also from the elected leaders responsible for approving it. Neither the public nor our representatives have any way of holding the TIDD projects accountable, either for maximizing public value or for minimizing public costs, even long after the TIDD deal is concluded.
I hope the City Council will realize this and vote "NO" on August 17th. In good conscience I can never vote for a City Councilor, who votes its approval - sorry.