What this article calls "gaming the system" sounds like fraud to me!
EXCERPT:
Goldman [Sachs] arranged $28 million in New Markets financing for the theater. U.S. Bancorp put $8.4 million into construction and loaned an additional $11 million. That allowed it to win $10.9 million in tax credits, city records show.
Goldman will collect a fee of $1.4 million for tracking finances for the government, according to Goldman spokesman Stephen Cohen.
The 599-seat Gerding Theater opened in 2006.
The League of Women Voters in Portland assails the use of federal tax subsidies.
"It's ludicrous," says Shelley Lorenzen, a former League of Women Voters board member who has studied Portland urban renewal. "The area has become kind of the hottest real-estate market in town, with the best restaurants, art galleries and very high-end condos."
Kellogg, the former Treasury official who helped structure the subsidy plan, says New Markets needs changes. It should divert money from projects such as high-end hotels and exhibit halls, he says. New Markets should target small-business development in regions that truly need a lift, Kellogg says. After all, he says, that was the point from the start.
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