The following letter is from Morita Bruce:
It’s no surprise that a financial analyst would be excited about Harford’s new TIF bond. It’s a good deal for investors, for the developer, and for the people who buy houses in Beechtree Estates. But there’s no free lunch, and Beechtree’s lunch will be paid for by Harford taxpayers.
In effect, this bill subsidizes every house in Beechtree by $18,000 and pays for it by diverting tax money away from the County treasury and into the hands of the TIF bond owners. I’d sure like it if my real estate taxes went to pay off my mortgage instead of going to the County’s treasury, but I don’t live in Beechtree. Instead, I’m going to be paying more taxes because Harford has given away Beechtree taxes.
Nor are we talking chump change. At a very conservative estimate of $3,000 per house, 768 houses would have provided $2,300,000 per year to Harford. That income is gone. And it’s not being used for projects that benefit the County as a whole. It’s going to build Beechtree itself and to relieve the impacts that Beechtree will have outside it’s boundaries.
This bill is very anti-competitive. Current homeowners don’t benefit, and it hurts them if they want to sell their home. New, unsold housing is now at a competitive disadvantage because they have no TIF subsidy. Even other new developments face unfair competition unless they, too, get a government TIF handout subsidized by us taxpayers.
“BRAC is coming” is a poor reason to support fiscally unfair and unsound decisions. Furthermore, I refuse to put my head in the sand….. I distrust what you “professionals” will do to the part that’s above the sand.
Morita Bruce, fiscal conservative
If anything positive could come from the health care bill, it exposed the fraud, corruption, and self dealing that goes on in our government. The same can be said about the Beechtree affair. It has exposed the corruption and hold the special interests have on our county government. If ever there was a time for the the voters of Harford county to rise up at the ballot box and OUST THE INCUMBENTS it is now. Get involved and join the Republiican Revolution Harford County on FB. Lets take our county back this November.
Re: OUST THE INCUMBENTS and joining the Republiican (sic) Revolution – aren’t these Republicans who rammed this handout through? If anything, this would make me run away from the GOP.
The development of Beechtree Estates should be SHUT DOWN immediately. Everyone please organize and go to the Beechtree Estates site with signs to have this project shut down. Please read your Aegis newspaper. The fact of the matter is that Craig and Co. have allowed development to begin upon the illegal granting of permits and not known to anyone having the taxpayer pay for water and sewer lines that are enlarged in order to benefit William Cox. Jr. Yes Mr. Cox is building 44 SF homes on 15 acres across from Beechtree Estates. And yes all this is for the benefit of Craig and Co. good buddies Turner and Cox. The owner of Beechtree Estates, James Knott who is a developer, would not build the utilities to accommodate Cox and therefore was denied the TIF by Craig.
On March 12 grading permits and storm water management permits were issued. It was not until March 16 that Harford County Council passed the TIF that the County Council says was necessary for Beechtree Estates to be developed. How can permits be granted prior to having the financing and having the developer say the property cannot be developed without the TIF? Because this is one big act of CORRUPTION. Beechtree Estates was a done deal way prior to the public hearing on Bill NO. 10-10. The developer was going ahead because he had full knowledge the TIF was going to be approved. As a side note it could without question be developed without the TIF. Why pay for something when Craig and Co. will give it to you for free. It is called Craig and Co. plan for redistributing the wealth form the taxpayers to the wealthy. The development of Beechtree Estates is one big lie and is one “big sloppy subsidy” according to Jay Hancock of the Bsltimore Sun. Only an emergency situation could have allowed this to occur.
The time has come for the Office of the Maryland State Prosecutor to expand the investigation of Craig and Co. from the Commerce Road Deal to the Beechtree Estates TIF. Please write the Harford County Council to shut down Beechtree Estates and make the developer apply for legal permits. The Tea Party Revolt is April 15, 2010 at the Harford County Courthouse. Be there at 4PM to let all Harford County residents know of the corruption going on in government.
The audio I heard of the Tea Party in Bel Air sounded more like Craig was in the center of the haters.
The incumbents in District 07 are all Republican, so, let me agree to ‘VOTE EM OUT’ They get the worst score with mdlcv.org in all of Maryland.
Cox owns numerous properties on Eastern Ave in Essex.
The federal money for neighborhoods were being directed towards getting Cox’s properties leased.
The problem is deeply rooted, J.B.’s father was and may still be second on the Committee. Their second priority was to help the American Dream Newspaper, (a street paper for homeless Veterans) to no avail; guess they are still benefiting from being landlords- with all those Federal dollars! Lordy, now they are butt budding in Harford County.
I got a Federal Agent out of Philidelphia and carried the evidence to Washington D.C. in 2007, to stop the AEG’s Liquid Natural Gas from destroying 88 miles from Baltimore County through Harford County; 87 homes, the Chesapeake Bay, our wetlands and way of life! As Aunt Becky, I do not do ugly, and the powers that be did not appreciate my ‘ammunition’ that I presented to the Federal Judge. That Aero Acres is Americas 1st planned Community listed in and protected by the National Historic Archieves. No one in the County, State District, Annapolis or Washington D.C. figured out how to stop them but Aunt Becky aka Citizens to elect Rebecca Weir Nelson State District 7 Harford/Baltimore Co. Treasurer Ken Coldwell (Founder of The Avenue Newspaper) P.O.Box 269 Abingdon, MD 21009 410 727 3728