Letter: Taxes should not be tool for development deals

Regarding the May 25 letter of notice to selected Buffalo Grove residents of a TIF proposal (Dundee Rd), I would like to register my disdain.

I believe that TIFs are bad public policy. If there were no TIFs that developers could negotiate for or through which they could be encouraged, we would find many projects proceeding without them.

Taxes are not something we should be able to use as a negotiating tool to get a deal done, especially at the expense of neighboring areas that have to make up the difference. I suspect that if TIFs were not available, if developers were not routinely anticipating them before agreeing to a project, many projects would proceed anyway. And if not, let the market deal with it and keep the village out of a decadeslong speculative equation.

Gerry Shacter

Buffalo Grove