To the editor:
The city of Gloucester needs to support the tax-increment financing (TIF) plan for Gloucester Crossing.
I have attended numerous presentations and meetings all to listen, learn and digest the numerous benefits that the city will reap from the project's development.
I have noted on several occasions that we have an individual wanting to invest $60 million into a project to improve the city's infrastructure, attract 22 retail outlets to accommodate local needs and wants, create more than 200 jobs, build a hotel to accommodate business people, and lastly, build an assisted living facility greatly needed as the baby boomers enter retirement. Last, but not least, the entire project is expected to generate and put into the city's coffers hundreds of thousands of dollars — even millions — in the next several years.
Gloucester Crossing will be putting millions of dollars towards the city's services without taxing services. The development will not put one child into the school system, the city will not be picking up its trash and the city will not be sanding or plowing in and around the development for the next 15 years.
As Mayor Kirk has told the citizens of Gloucester on numerous occasions, she only has limited tools in her bag to reconstruct the financial position and economy of this great city. As the saying goes, the only way to get out of a hole is stop digging and it's about time that we do.
What options does the mayor have you might ask?
Increase real estate taxes at every opportunity even asking for overrides;
Reduce city services even more than they are now including but not limited to both the Police and Fire Department;
Increase fees for residents for beach stickers, trash stickers, etc.;
Build the tax base. It is building the tax base as I see it to get this city back on course and climb the ladder to get out of the hole. Presently, the industrial and commercial tax base of the city is only 9 percent. In most cities and towns the industrial and commercial tax base is 25 to 30 percent.
Another area where the city of Gloucester comes up short is in affordable housing. Again, the city is at 9 percent and is below the state standard. Thus, as we know, as an alternative to the $60-million Gloucester Crossing investment by Sam Park, the state has permitted the property to build 250 units of housing under 40B.
Is it what the residents of Gloucester want? Some 250 housing units? Assuming only one child in each one, where would the city put 250 students in the school system tomorrow? We can barely accommodate what we have now with modular classrooms, let alone burdening the system with 250 more students.
What about the cost of schooling? Adding 250 students at $10,000 each to educate tells me the city would have to expend an additional $2.5 million. What about the trash removal cost? What about the snow plowing? What about the demand on the fire and police departments.
My point, again, is this: Let's make a wise decision to invest in Sam Park who will add tax dollars to provide services "without taxing services." The merits, advantages and benefits of the project far exceed any disadvantages. Sam Park and Company is willing to invest in the city of Gloucester, and I feel the city of Gloucester should invest in him by granting the TIF.
Anyone who does not see the merits and benefits Gloucester Crossing will be bringing to the city of Gloucester is, in my opinion, "out to lunch."
Bob Ryan
Blake Court, Gloucester
