The recent article in the PenBay Pilot on a prospective parking lot in Rockport Village has some misleading information for the Rockport voters.

A TIF (tax increment financing) is used to finance redevelopment projects with the idea that anticipated future tax revenue from new development as a result will pay for the expenditure without using present tax dollars.

It was stated that the new hotel in the Village could be used to help pay for the project. That is just wrong. The hotel was approved and is being built in spite of the parking issues. It will be built with or without the parking lot.

Any new expenditure for parking cannot be connected to the tax revenue from the hotel. The TIF will have to find revenue from other projects to justify it.

That leads to another question. The Village has very little space for further expansion. Maybe the open lot next to 18 Central Street.

Before approving anything like this, the voters need to ask specifically where the development can happen and what the estimated revenue will be. Forgetting esthetics and any other issues, the nuts and bolts of plain financing are not being discussed.

The way it is being presented is a shell game of moving numbers to make it look like it pays for itself.

Town officials do the hard work and show the voters really how you plan to pay for it. 

Peter Hall lives in Rockport