Wall opposes government handouts, unless they benefit him

A quick glance at Madison developer (and rumored U.S. Senate candidate) Terrence Wall’s “Against the Wall” column for In Business Magazine makes it abundantly clear Wall is no fan of government handouts in most instances.

However, Terrence Wall is in favor of government handouts if they’ll benefit his interests, as was the case with the Tribeca Village project in Middleton, a project that had Wall asking for a $65 million handout from the city of Middleton:

It doesn’t hurt to ask.

Middleton officials, after all, are used to entertaining tax incremental financing requests from developers. Of course, those requests are usually in the $2 million to $3 million range. So when developer Terrence Wall asked for a record-setting $65 million in TIF assistance for his proposed Tribeca Village project, a few eyebrows were bound to be raised.

But the proposals for Tribeca Village have been raising city officials’ eyebrows since last year. The $280 million, 24-acre project to be located between the new Highway 12 bypass and Parmenter Street in Middleton has spurred plenty of positive reaction in terms of the economic benefits it could provide to the city.

While I don’t presume to be the foremost expert on Tax Increment Financing (TIF), I always thought TIF was designed to channel funding toward improvements in distressed or underdeveloped areas where development might not otherwise occur, not to use as a handout to developers to develop prime real estate.