“Freeze! Everybody, hands up!” yell three community members sneaking up on a surprised crowd of 30 or 40 people seated inside Beneficent Congregational Church in Providence. Dressed in dark blazers, colorful ties, and button-down shirts, and brandishing make-believe guns, the mock robbers cue audience members to read aloud the phrases printed on the blue pieces of paper under their chairs. The bandits then flee with the papers, symbolizing money no longer available for playgrounds, youth recreation programs, and other neighborhood-based forms of investment.
Thus opened Saturday’s citywide summit on Providence’s plan to spur improvements in and around the downtown area through tax incremental financing (TIF), a controversial strategy used in a number of US communities to finance municipal projects. Providence is pursuing a plan to borrow money against projected tax increases from new private development — including hotels and luxury condo complexes — to finance public projects like landscaping, reconnecting Westminster Street through Cathedral Plaza, and expanding downtown parking. The city hopes the taxed development will facilitate further economic development and that the proposed projects will make downtown more pedestrian-friendly.
Sponsored by Direct Action for Rights & Equality (DARE), the Olneyville Neighborhood Association, UNITE-HERE, Local 217, and Rhode Island Jobs with Justice, Saturday’s TIF summit was organized by affiliated Providence residents who perceive a “thief” in “TIF,” and who want to facilitate community-led strategies for responding. They question whether the city is pursuing this at the cost of improved schools and other public services, and are concerned that this strategy will benefit high-end developers and wealthy out-of-towners at the expense of poor and working-class residents, including students and small business owners. Summit participants also described little direct communication about the plan with city residents.
In 2005, city planning officials began drafting a TIF proposal and hired a consultant to develop a plan for writing the related ordinance. The proposal is currently before the City Plan Commission and the City Council’s finance committee.
Last month, City Council President John J. Lombardi traveled to meet with TIF proponents and opponents in Chicago, which has been using TIFs since the 1970s. Impressed that Chicago hosted 40 meetings in a historically African-American neighborhood before pursuing its TIF, Lombardi griped at Saturday’s summit that in Providence “You can’t even get 40 seconds of a sit-down!” He advised community members to “insist you’re a part of the process.”
City Councilman David Segal notes that California requires at least 20 percent of TIF revenue to be invested in affordable housing, “to help offset gentrification and displacement caused by rising property values.” In contrast, Segal points to the $5 million designated for affordable housing in Providence’s downtown TIF plan, out of an estimated cost of $60 million to $90 million.
Citing a $50 million Providence bond issued in 1996, and another for the same amount in 2000 — both of which cost the city $120 million to pay off — Segal also questioned the sense of borrowing for infrastructure improvements.
