To the Editor:

The city of Saint Charles uses tax money to aid certain private business projects that the city designates as TIF – or tax increment financing – projects. Some of this aid has been used to pay $2 million to developer Shodeen for worthless covenants; to pay $12.4 million for land that is being given free to the First Street developer; and to pay, to date, $16.1 million for infrastructure and improvements for the private First Street project.

TIF projects will generate increased property taxes, but those increased taxes will be used to pay off TIF bonds that fund the aid. This is in contrast to unaided developments like the Brownstone or the Milestone Row, where the increase in property taxes goes to schools and parks in order to keep property tax rates down.