Minding the gap

The city of Westbrook has a hole in its budget that’s large and growing larger.

As we reported in front page story in last week’s American Journal, the city is covering a growing gap in its budget because revenue from the city’s downtown tax increment financing district isn’t meeting expectations. The city projected it would reap $318,000 in revenue from the TIF next year and now expects to collect only $106,000. That wouldn’t be a problem if the city hadn’t already borrowed millions of dollars against those projected revenues.

The lessons to be taken from this problem are clear. Nothing comes free of charge, especially in the free market, which the city has been trying to influence. And, the city needs – now more than ever – to get downtown development moving.

As the city was borrowing money to pay for downtown projects, like the construction of the parking garage and the installation of redundant power and Internet, some city officials were fond of saying the projects wouldn’t cost taxpayers any money. Those statements were dubious then and even more so now.

Even though the city expected the money would come from the TIF district, it still would have been tax money, which the city could have chosen to spend in other ways. Now that reality isn’t living up to expectations, it’s coming directly out of taxpayers’ pockets.

This is not to say, however, that the TIF district was a bad idea. The city just expected it to pay for too much too fast, especially considering the city had also initially planned to use it to pay for the reconstruction of William Clarke Drive, and planned to support it with projects that were far from complete, like the development of Saccarappa Park.

On the contrary, the TIF district was the result of the kind of creative thinking the city needs to employ now to get development in the downtown moving again to pay for the deficit created by the TIF, rather than using the deficit as an excuse to develop the park. Development there stalled for a whole host of reasons that have nothing to do with the downtown TIF district. If citizens or city councilors want to develop the park, they should do it because they believe it’s the right move for the city.

City Councilor Brendan Rielly’s plan for an economic summit is a good one. The summit should incorporate the ideas of the mayor’s economic development committee, as well as planners and developers. The city has to find a way to sell itself as a great place to do business.

Westbrook has no shortage of offerings. It’s got a river running through it, and a Riverwalk running along it. It’s got redundant power and Internet, and plenty of workers at the Dana Warp Mill and One Riverfront Plaza are looking for places to spend their hard-earned money during the day.

The city needs some vision. This time around, it just needs to temper that vision with a dose of realism.

Review middle school operations

A large and well-organized group of parents went to the Gorham School Committee last week to request the formation of a committee to review the administrative operations at the Gorham Middle School.

The call from parents came after middle school Principal Dennis Duquette nearly left for another job in Cape Elizabeth.

We join parents in calling for the formation of the committee. It’s apparent, just from reading the letters that appear on this page, that Duquette is tremendously popular with parents and students. His personal connections with students seem to have had an impact on many of their lives. Some parents have credited him with transforming what they have described as a poor atmosphere at the middle school.

Duquette’s obviously not someone any school district would want to lose, and Gorham should take a hard look at the circumstances that led him to seek employment elsewhere.

Brendan Moran, editor