This letter is in reference to Naran Row-Spaulding’s letter last week (“No means no,” page 10). Her letter was in reference to the defeat of the down town revitalization project at this years town meeting.

A project that in my opinion is way overdue! Her letter actually supports Mr. Georgitis’ claims that voters were confused and didn’t understand the financing part.

My understanding of TIF money is that they are paid to the town by developers and are intended to be used for by the town for capital improvement projects, like the downtown project. The money is not paid by town residents through taxes and the money cannot be used for anything but capital works projects.

I may be wrong, but that’s how I understand it. So what happened was that town voters nixed a needed capital works project that would have been paid for with money that already exist, in an account somewhere.

Not using the funds means the money just continues to sit in that account and will remain there, doing no one any good for however long it takes to get the voters to understand what TIF money is and how it is to be used. Those funds cannot be used to run the town or pay salaries or bills or anything related to the operation of the town. Sounds like someone was confused to me.

I think the town needs to find another way to access those funds without needing voter approval because not enough people turn out to vote, and secondly, voters obviously didn’t know what TIF funds were.

Otherwise nothing is going to get fixed around town and our downtown shopping district will continue its slide into ruin and decay.

Steven Burr

Kennebunk