House OKs $1M to raze Green Bay's old downtown mall | greenbaypressgazette.com | Green Bay Press Gazette
Federal funding for demolition of Green Bay’s vacant downtown shopping mall has cleared the full House of Representatives.I searched the Constitution for the section that spells out how tearing down defunct shopping malls should be bankrolled by the federal government, but my search was in vain. No such section exists. Someone please alert Steve Kagen's office.
U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen, D-Appleton, announced today that $1 million for the mall project was included in an appropriations bill approved by the House late Thursday.
4 comments:
The Health and Well-being clause?
According to this, the City now owns the property. Should they not try to see it developed to its greatest tax-generating potential?
John,
Where's the compelling national interest in this?
I don't think you have to be Ron Paul to wonder why the feds need to be involved in the demolition of a shopping mall in GB.
I tend to agree with you, actually. Local governments love to spur their very local economies and think they're the best mechanism to do so. They rearrange tax revenue, create incentives, spend money to market and advertise. The very same corporations who lobby at the state and Federal level against tax hikes and increased spending are eager to accept the pork when it is offered to help them buy land for their next factory or big-box store. A local muckety-muck who is otherwise a staunch Republican will happily cheer some chunk of local pork because "we've got to do something" mostly because they're tired of looking at an empty lot on their drive to work.
On the other hand, I don't like to see governments waste resources by selling them at rock-bottom prices. If that land is improved and the value increased and made more appealing to buyers by removing the old mall, can't that local government decide to do so?
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