Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Rivalries Over Retail Called Destructive
Gordon to cities: Tax lures must end
Calls rivalries over retail 'destructive'
Ginger D. Richardson
The Arizona Republic
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon on Tuesday challenged Valley cities to stop giving public subsidies to developers who want to build big-box retail stores and auto malls.
The issue is a high-stakes one in the Valley, where cities are estimated to have given or offered more than $300 million in incentives in recent years. Even now, Chandler and Gilbert are engaged in a bidding war for auto malls on sites about two miles away from each other.
Gordon says that money could be better spent on public safety and education.
"You all know me," Gordon said. "I am not anti-development. But how do we justify these upside-down spending sprees?
"It's destructive. It's shortsighted, and I say close the public checkbook on these projects and let the market dictate where retail development goes."
"You heard the wild applause when the mayor mentioned this idea? That was me," Hallman said. "These incentives are extraordinarily destructive to the economic viability to the cities in this area.
"We need to stop looking at this on a municipal level and look at it on a regional basis rather than the way we do now, in hostile competition with each other."
©Arizona Republic 2004
Calls rivalries over retail 'destructive'
Ginger D. Richardson
The Arizona Republic
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon on Tuesday challenged Valley cities to stop giving public subsidies to developers who want to build big-box retail stores and auto malls.
The issue is a high-stakes one in the Valley, where cities are estimated to have given or offered more than $300 million in incentives in recent years. Even now, Chandler and Gilbert are engaged in a bidding war for auto malls on sites about two miles away from each other.
Gordon says that money could be better spent on public safety and education.
"You all know me," Gordon said. "I am not anti-development. But how do we justify these upside-down spending sprees?
"It's destructive. It's shortsighted, and I say close the public checkbook on these projects and let the market dictate where retail development goes."
"You heard the wild applause when the mayor mentioned this idea? That was me," Hallman said. "These incentives are extraordinarily destructive to the economic viability to the cities in this area.
"We need to stop looking at this on a municipal level and look at it on a regional basis rather than the way we do now, in hostile competition with each other."
©Arizona Republic 2004
