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Well looky here, tax incremental financing—otherwise known as TIF, or the best little financing friend a developer or property owner can have—is back in the news.

No one, other than Slidell Rep. Pete Schneider, who cast the lone votes of dissent, seems to be paying attention but last week the House passed bills by 98-1 margins that would get the TIF ball rolling on three Baton Rouge properties: the Westmoreland Shopping Center on Government Street at South Acadian Thruway, the Bob Dean-owned EBRATS building on North Boulevard, and The King Hotel, which is owned by a group headed by Brace Godfrey and sits across the street from the Hilton Capitol Center (which, ironically, has the distinction of being Baton Rouge’s first TIF-backed renovation project).

Without question, it’s in the best interest of Baton Rouge to have these three wonderful properties—one in Mid City, the other two downtown—become something other than largely abandoned and decaying buildings.

But—and this should make my Bass Pro friends in Livingston Parish happy—I don’t see why any of these properties need to TIF their way back to glory. The best I can tell, each needs TIF to make a deal work because 1) the seller is asking for too much money (Westmoreland), 2) the buyer paid too much money (King Hotel) or, 3) the building will be flipped and having TIF attached drives up the price (EBRATS). To be fair, Dean has not said what he intends to do with his recent purchase, so perhaps my third point isn’t fair to Mr. Dean, but TIF history in Louisiana suggests I may be right.

The purpose of TIF, first used by California in the 1950s, is not to make it easy for a landowner to profit from greed or to bail out an overzealous buyer in need of a financial break.

No question, property owners in Mid City and downtown are asking for prices that might lead an outsider to believe we’ve got a thriving metropolis, but TIF, solely in the name of keeping the renaissance alive, isn’t the solution to sticker shock—or escalating construction costs.

I concede Westmoreland and the King Hotel come close to what TIF was created for, but not close enough to merit its use. (As for EBRATS, does anyone really know what Dean will do until he actually does it?)

Here’s your refresher course: TIF is an economic development financing tool, typically reserved for economically depressed areas, where taxes generated by the project repay the taxpayer-backed construction bonds. Every state in the nation, other than Delaware, uses some form of TIF—though almost all prohibit its use for retail projects (unlike Louisiana) and most use property taxes to retire the bond.

Louisiana, however, opts for sales and hotel bed taxes, primarily because the property tax rate here is so extraordinarily low that interest costs would be astronomical.

Yet, using TIF for retail projects is extremely controversial. Detractors like myself argue it provides a huge financial advantage that tilts the free market playing field. Supporters counter such TIFs attract national retailers that ultimately increase sales tax collections. Most states agree with me, frowning on retail TIFs. But in Louisiana, what else are you going to build that can generate the taxes necessary to retire the debt?

Which, if logic prevails, means the laudable intent of TIF—bringing blighted areas back to life by getting people to live and work there—doesn’t really work here because residential and office building projects don’t generate sales taxes—unless there’s a significant retail component to the deal.

Ain’t that a kick to the onions.

Our method of using TIFs is hopelessly flawed, but eliminating it would be competitively tough with 48 other states on board.

More daunting is doing what’s necessary for TIF to be utilized fairly and in keeping with its original intent—overhauling the tax code (reducing or eliminating sales taxes while increasing property taxes to a level that’s revenue neutral), lowering the homestead exemption, accurately assessing property and consolidating local government to reduce tax burdens.

Good luck with that.

Can we at least come up with a TIF program that doesn’t promote greed or act as a safety net on a bad investment; one that handles the roads and infrastructure on a retail project but doesn’t include the building; and one where only parish sales taxes are part of the equation?

Please.