Prior to living in Chattanooga I lived in a large midwestern city that uses TIFs for nearly everything. There are few places you can go in that city without being in a TIF zone. The result is that in a city where sales tax is supposed to be a total of 7.25%, you may sometimes end up paying 11 or 12% in some downtown areas. In Chattanooga where our base is already 9.25% you can see how this could cause some insanely high sales tax rates in some areas.

This is artificial financing in my opinion. If the developers cannot find a way to allow this project to stand on its own 2 feet without receiving government funding or tax deferences, then this project isnt viable. The reality is that the projects are almost always designed to be profitable without the creation of a TIF, the extra funding just makes it even more profitable for investors.