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Council takes aim at economic incentives
Thursday, February 9, 2017 by Elizabeth Pagano
On Wednesday, Mayor Steve Adler and City Council members Ellen Troxclair, Ora Houston and Jimmy Flannigan announced plans to introduce a resolution aimed at reforming the city’s economic incentives. The resolution (embedded below) was formally introduced via a post by Adler on the city’s message board. “Our discussion of affordability challenges needs to address not only housing costs and property taxes, but also transportation, health care, and child care among many others. Importantly, this focus also needs to address income levels and access to economic opportunity for our residents. The Economic Incentives Reform resolution is one way to do this.” That message explained that the plan would better align the city’s economic incentive programs with goals of finding more middle-income jobs — “preferably located near the folks that most need those jobs and where we want growth to occur, as well as the access, training, and experience (including paid internships and apprenticeships) necessary for the folks that live here to get those jobs” — and furthering priority goals such as improving health and eliminating food deserts. The resolution also noted that the new policy should increase community benefits for the creative arts sector of the city and stress the development of “vibrant, mixed-use commercial corridors.”
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