Major projects benefit someone; question is who

To the editor:

The controversy surrounding the Prestwick Plantation project and the obtaining of tax increment financing by its developers is, in my mind, a matter of seeking to gain advantage for purposes not originally intended. The development of Prestwick and the Dalhousie Golf Club will better the lives of some but not the general public as a whole.

Whether the project has merit in that respect is not the subject of this comment, however. Rather, it is the inference in your Sept. 9 article that Cape Girardeau is losing out to other communities because it is not making use of TIF funding and that going forward with Prestwick would somehow even the score. To compare the possible benefits of Prestwick with the attraction of businesses like those mentioned in the article is absurd.

Whether it be Prestwick, the Show Me Center, the River Campus, billboard regulation, liquor-sales regulation or anything else of the sort, such projects do, indeed, benefit someone. The real question is who. Jim Drury presupposes our interests and the type of entertainment we who live here wish to enjoy. Cord Dombroski seeks advantage but did not foresee controversy.

JOHN JUSITS

Cape Girardeau