A Growing TIF in Fairfield

I’ve got two minutes to explain to you why there are serious issues poisoning the relationship between the City of Fairfield and the rest of our taxing bodies.

Tuesday, the city council awarded a bid of slightly over $1.7 million dollars to upgrade the water system under Main and Delaware. No doubt, it needs to be replaced.  Every dime came from the city’s TIF fund….and that was a total surprise to many.

In doing so, Mayor Brent Maguire decided there was no need to talk to his TIF partners…namely the heads of the other taxing bodies. You see, they were promised they’d get 40-percent of the money back in 2014 when the previous mayor wanted TIF to continue.  Everyone trusted. This week’s city council action  burned that promise…and I can tell you….there are some real unhappy people.

The city’s hired gun TIF attorney--out of Springfield--was here in February, and promised a complete report on the TIF mess within days of his appearance. That was several weeks ago. Still no report.

I have my own issues. Unless the city moves quickly to help current businesses and actively tries to attract new jobs, the water lines are inconsequential.

This was a bold move by the Mayor. He obviously felt emboldened to move forward, ignoring the promises made by his predecessor, taking money on the front end from his fellow taxing bodies, and then hogging the fund on the back end.

Yep, we are going to have some water pressure in downtown. 

Unfortunately,  it comes at the expense of harmony among our elected leaders.