Local developer, Mark Matlock, has been trying to get Lenoir City officials to let him in on the tax payer hand out to developers. Several months ago, Matlock had approached the city with a TIF (Tax Increment Finance) request in hopes the city might help him foot the bill for his strip mall between KFC and Burger King. Without going into a lot of detail, a TIF is just a sneaky way for developers to get their hands on your tax dollars to supplement their developments.

But you will have to give Matlock a lot of credit for creativity. Just the word TIF has become a bad word to local governments. Seems most elected officials have finally gotten wise to the TIF plan. So Matlock came up with a whole new word. He doesn't want a TIF, he wants an ALF. (Appraisal Levied Financing).

Under Matlock's ALF plan, he maintains that his strip mall is way under appraised. He is willing to have his property reappraised at a much higher amount. The city would then give him several hundred thousand dollars which would be repaid by the increased tax appraisal over the next twenty years. This one has a real Bernie Madoff sound to it.

It didn't appear that most city councilmen were ready to swallow that bait but some did give Matlock high praise for the quality of his developments.City officials agreed to give the matter some thought.

Any way you slice or dice it, it always comes up the same. Some developers are always looking for a way to get the tax payers to pay their bills.

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