Apparently Doug Hoffer struck a few nerves when, in his recent op-ed, he attempted to correct some misconceptions concerning VEGI awards and other economic development incentives.
One of those nerves connected to St. Albans City Manager, Dominic Cloud, who responded very defensively in his own op-ed, which claims that the state auditor is biased against such incentives and therefore unfit to audit these programs.
Sorry, Mr. Cloud, but that is his job.
As City Manager, your job and that of everyone on your team is to promote the City and whatever you believe will serve the near-term interests of the City. Hopefully, those near-term interests will not jeopardize long-term interests, but that is where politics complicate decision-making.
The job of any business negotiator is to promote the immediate interests of the company, and that includes seizing on any available financial incentive.
The job of the state auditor is to assess, however possible, the net value of state invest
ments wherever they occur. If the auditor genuinely cares for the interests of the citizenry, he/she goes one step further and attempts to explain the metrics involved in his assessments so that informed voters can do a better job of evaluating the performance of those who hold the purse strings. Auditor Hoffer is to be applauded for his commitment to truth and transparency, even when that truth may be less flattering than others might hope.
It isn’t his job to be a cheer-leader for the state. We have plenty of elected and appointed officials who need no coaxing to fill that role.
We don’t need to look any further than the EB-5 scandal for evidence that incentive programs can be abused. We need only look a little further back to remember when the Milton TIF went off the rails.
We need the cold hard gaze of an unromantic number cruncher like Doug Hoffer to offset
the overly rosy picture of opportunity that local politicians are inclined to paint.
What Mr. Hoffer is reminding us is that these economic incentive programs may look like easy wins; but the devil is in the details, of which we often have an insufficient grasp. Outlining some of those considerations for taxpayers to weigh may look like “bias” to Mr. Cloud. To me, it looks like responsible stewardship and an auditor’s job well-done.
Could it be that Mr. Cloud is trying to throw a little shade on Hoffer in anticipation that the audit of St. Albans’s TIF will prove unfavorable?