To the Editor:

Bath Iron Works wants to construct another Ultra Hall building in TIF District 3. Its estimated value would be approximately $25 million, thereby generating $500,000 in new tax revenue to Bath each year.

To finance its construction, BIW is asking Bath for additional tax increment financing, whereby half that $500,000 would be returned to BIW each year for 25 years.

BIW already has millions of dollars of Bath taxes refunded to them annually. In 2012, that figure was nearly $4.1 million.

BIW argues that their proposal would benefit Bath by providing $9.4 million in revenue over time. That may be so, but one should also know that Bath would gain an additional $6 million to $8 million overall if the TIF is denied, by receiving full payment of taxes generated by BIW’s private financing of the project.

And, here is a little understood fact: Currently, TIF District 3 has no “credit enhancement” tax break advantage to BIW. All taxes — 70 percent of them sheltered from state valuation — come to the city. BIW wants that district reconfigured so it can reclaim 50 percent of newly generated property taxes.

However, since TIF District 3 already exists, benefiting Bath fully with sheltered taxes, the city gains nothing from granting this additional tax break.

If this TIF is approved, Bath’s taxpayers would be giving BIW an additional quarter million dollars in tax breaks, per year, for 25 years — to do something they would do anyway for competitive gain.

At some point, BIW will have to wean itself from the public teat. Let’s start now.

Bath’s governance is mandated to best serve the economic interest of its citizenry. In this case, continued public financial assistance to such a major corporate entity needs incontestable explanation of need — at length, in the fullest, with no rush to judgment — to those of us in Bath struggling to continue bearing a tax burden that BIW refuses to responsibly offset.

Gary Anderson
Bath