Of Hong Kong and TIF
Daijimin asks about the Hong Kong method of transportation finance described here.
The big problem that I see, which I alluded to in a comment to David Brewster's article, is that the financing scheme described -- tax increment financing -- is illegal in Washington State.
I wrote about this a few months back in the context of I-747. Tax increment financing (TIF) is the idea that you borrow money to finance, say, a transit project, and the resulting increase in property taxes around the project can be used pay back the loan (this is a bit different than LID, which financed the Seattle Streetcar, and which involves assessing an up-front tax on the property owners).
In speaking with folks who know more about this issue than I, I've come to thnk that there are too many barriers in the state constitution vis-a-vis property taxes to actually implement TIF in the way Brewster describes. Which is too bad.
- Frank's blog
- Login or register to post comments
