One of the points of contention with the new tax agreement is the amount of money the city would see through a PILOT program. People were holding signs at the June 20 public info session that said $60 million or nothing. Well, that's not exactly true – the $60 million promised with the current tax agreement means that the mall will stay off the tax rolls, and the developer will pay the city and county $60 million (actually, it's more like $54 million) a year, as a guarantee for sales tax. It doesn't replace property taxes.

In Councilor Stephanie Miner's letter to the mayor regarding the 2002 tax agreement, it becomes clear that the city and county get the actual sales tax amount they're entitled to and the mall has to get only private financing. That private financing, assuming it's done the traditional way (and any bank putting up $300 million-plus is going to do it their way), would require that the mall gets built and it has tenants in it. The new tax agreement requires no such guarantee.

To read the letter, go here and click the link at the bottom of the page.