Excerpt: City government is steering tens of millions of tax dollars to the convention business, Downtown decoration and for-profit sports, retail and hospitality purveyors while the most basic of amenities, particularly libraries and mass transit, struggle for want of a fraction of those dollars.
The Ballard administration insists that legalities make the argument moot; but members of the City-County Council are right to challenge that assertion and to demand that it be debated before approving the Capital Improvement Board's budget.
One rubber stamp is enough for the time being. The Metropolitan Development Commission recently gave unanimous permission to divert $8 million a year from the tax-increment finance fund to the CIB, over protests that the move amounts to giving that body property tax revenue for the first time. Critics say state law requires City-County Council review of that maneuver. The city says no.
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