Tracy Hoskins and His Johnson

Developer Tracy Hoskins went before the Johnson City Council tonight and, with a straight face, asked them to believe that his prime development property on Joyce Boulevard, "next to Fayetteville's economic corridor," was a "blighted area." He told this whopper because he wants a Tax Increment Financing District and taxpayer subsidies to help pay for his planned commercial and residential development. Shameless flim-flam if I ever heard it.

Not everyone was fooled. "We'd still have the risk that if this thing falls through and the company goes out of business, we'd be liable," said Johnson Alderman Bill Curry. Yes, and the school millage would be frozen for 25 years, even as property taxes go up and pay off the bonds for a major portion of $4.5 million. Johnson has already had one bad experience with a proposed TIF project, and I haven't heard the citizens clamoring for more.

Hoskins then trotted out Jeff Cooperstein, whom he anticipates would perform a feasibility study showing that Johnson would benefit from providing corporate welfare to Hoskins at taxpayers' expense. Cooperstein holds a bachelor's degree and is a former social studies teacher at high schools in Bellflower, California and Southridge, South Carolina. Cooperstein said he felt that Hoskins' scheme qualified as a "blighted" area as much as Fayetteville's TIF district. We all know how well that is working out.