BIW keeps referring to its request for additional TIF support from the city of Bath as a “ partnership,” when what it is, using a word they apparently dislike, is a one-sided tax break  for their corporate benefit. The “partnership” is, if they are granted a $6 million forgiveness of taxes, they will pay a similar amount over a 25-year period. The annual tax break will be $ 250,000, on top of a $ 4.1 million per-year tax break Bath already provides.

To describe giving someone half of what is owed as being in partnership with them is a truly odd understanding of a partnership. It’s to say to your partner, I will give you half, or I will give you nothing, and you should be grateful that I give you anything.

BIW also describes this as a “win-win” situation for the city and themselves. Referring to previous TIFs for BIW and Bath’s increasingly inadequate city coffers, a fellow citizen said “I don’t know how many more win-win situations Bath can continue to enjoy.”

Bath’s City Council desperately needs to hear the truth in that observation.

Gary Anderson
Bath


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