Dear Editor,
When it's election season, distributive politics — those that focus on how the pie gets divided, versus how the pie get baked in the first place — tend to bubble up to the top of the queue. And this cycle's no exception, with the topic of whether downtown has received "too much" and other-city neighborhoods "not enough" of the city council's attention in recent years.
I for one believe that is the wrong question.
Milton’s downtown is set for a metamorphosis. For years after the Blackwater Bistro’s opening, there was very little new construction or renovation even planned for downtown.
Then came the city’s new incentives and plans for three new restaurants quickly followed. In each case, public-private partnerships have produced economic development agreements that heretofore where not possible.
The city has assisted the private sector by providing incentives which close a projects independently determined financial gap to make the project financially viable.
These partnerships on projects have proven truly catalytic. Even in the aftermath of an historic economic collapse, both nationally and regionally, anyone can see the green shoots of economic development sprouting in Milton’s downtown.
In this political season, some in our community have taken issue with public support for these projects, suggesting, contrary to decades of experience, that without public support these projects would happen anyway, or questioning the motives of developers who make long term financial, personal and legal commitments to our city, or suggesting more economic development would be triggered if more incentives were provided.
These critiques tend to resonate in an environment of skepticism and misunderstanding, regarding just what sort of incentives is being publicly provided, and why it is actually a good deal for our community. It's very important we come to understand what these publicly supported projects do for our community and at what cost. Skepticism without information is simply a justification for inaction.
In the main, our public officials have chosen to use what could be described as a synthetic form of tax incentive financing to close financing gaps in private developments that have the potential to stimulate other development in their wake. However, with this approach no public money goes into the projects to get them completed.
Why is this a good deal? The taxing authority wins because the project is completed, generates other private development, increases tax valuations and collections on even unimproved adjacent properties, increases employment which increases sales tax collections, and decreases social services expenditures, and, once the incentives burn off, the tax base is significantly increased. Of course, if the taxing authority had any reasonable belief that the development would happen as quickly and to the same scale without the incentive, then there would be no reason to provide such incentives. Further, such financing is not a solution for every proposed project. It can only make viable projects that would be viable commercial projects but for the burden of taxation and fees. Using another approach, public entities have provided some aspects of the infrastructure necessary to make a project commercially viable. That to this date has not occurred here and may not.
Our public officials need to be applauded for having the vision to get these projects going because in many cases it takes years for this sort of foresight to gain public recognition, while elections happen on a more frequent cycle. Even when the benefits are apparent, incumbents may face challengers claiming, as you heard in the current debate, public assistance should have been focused elsewhere or on them.
In my view, downtown is everybody’s neighborhood and benefits to downtown radiate out to neighborhoods and vice versa. These tools of economic development can, if prudently, yet aggressively deployed, help to make this a more vibrant community. So I encourage the council and the community not to yield to skepticism, “do-nothing-ism,” or the politics of us versus them.
In Milton, we need more growth in all areas. The success of these ventures should encourage us to do more of them and be more creative with these tools, not less. Finally let’s not forget the two biggest problems facing Highway 90 and the courthouse. Decisions out of the hands of the city to a great degree in one case, and unquestionably in the other. Please Santa Rosa County, get on with it. Lead, follow or get out of the city’s way.
Paul Kilmartin
Milton
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Milton’s downtown is set for a metamorphosis