Dear Editor:
I have read reports of this Sashabaw Corridor Improvement Authority.
I have been skeptical.
It seems to be a poor time to be spending millions of dollars and more of our tax money for additional improvements to just one part of our community when it already appears it’s thriving.
On the replay of the township board meeting, I heard them admit that the proposal for a regional hospital is the real moving force for the CIA.
Apparently, it is the county that wants it located here and the county won’t contribute even a limited portion of their tax money to a plan which makes improvements that are not useful for the hospital.
At the same meeting, the board announced that it was adopting a deficit budget and cutting programs and services.
So here is the vicious cycle.
We take tax money away from established community services to pay for the most massive development ever in our community. A development which will undoubtedly require even more services and more money for a hospital that won’t have to pay property taxes.
We’ve already spent millions of dollars enhancing the Sashabaw corridor and the result seems to be plenty of commercial development so I don’t think we need to encourage more development.
Rather, we need to encourage more common sense with some members of the township board.
Craig Bennett
Independence Township