The TIF Lawsuit - Some Spillover

The following article has been submitted by our
Associate Editor Ben Smith. This information
has not been thoroughly researched and is being
published as the opinion of both the Editor and
Associate Editor. More will be published here on
this topic that's been receiving only a minimal
notice of any sort by a local press that's more
intent on making believe that Iron County is a
happy place with no problems and no issues.

Bill Vajk

================================

Iron County taxpayers are in a similar predicament
to Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, West Bloomfield,
and Southgate downstate.

The Election Committee is supposed to meet and
approve as "understandable language" the wording
of any proposal before ANY issue can be put on a
ballot. Right now a judge's careless disregard of the
law (no election committee meeting being set)
makes the taxpayers of Iron County possibly subject
to a huge tax burden.

The cities of Iron River and Caspian are suing Iron
County over a misunderstanding about what is
meant by the wording of the "TIF" (Tax Increment
Financing) law proposal which was implemented
by both the cities and the county. Recently a
different interpretation of this wording has emerged.

When the problem was addressed as prescribed by
statute, it was found that the election committee of
the county had not meant to approve the wording of
the proposal before it was put on the ballot, and, in
fact, had not met for 13 years. As a result, there
have been many ballot proposals over the last 13
years on which the wording has not been approved.

All these proposals are now in question as to their
validity.

Whose fault is it when the letter of the law is not
observed? Downstate, in the areas mentioned above,
the judges involved were accused and convicted
of violating the law. The convictions were upheld
by judicial oversight boards, consequently the
taxpayers PAID.

Is Iron County facing a similar fate ?

Ben Smith