Marietta's ambitious plan to use Tax Allocation District subsidies to remake itself is over 10 years old and the financial halo its proponents promised has turned into a crown of thorns. Its failure will have ramifications for years to come for taxpayers, the Marietta School System and Marietta Power and Water customers

Some of the TAD victims have already expressed their anger.

In October 2009 an on-line reader of the MDJ articulated the situation at the Village at Frasier Park.

"The homes are very nice, and the people who live here must be the friendliest people in the city. We are not just a street. We are a community. Our hearts are broken that the financial side is what claims us a failure.

"Personally, I blame the City of Marietta. They have failed me as a citizen and taxpayer. I was one of the first to take a gamble moving into a questionable neighborhood, leading the example for others to follow. Now, I have little faith in the good sense of our leaders to make sound decisions. I still have to pay double the taxes and the run-down duplex next door to me may never be rehabilitated. The main source of my distress and distrust of city officials is that this project was given no oversight. Where is the money? How was it spent? Shouldn't there have been flashing red danger signs? How could they allow this neighborhood to fail? These are the questions I want answers to."

No answers have been forthcoming from City Hall. What we do know is that the Frasier Circle and Marietta Mill Loft Apartment TAD projects were financially troubled when the city council approved giving them $660,000 and $400,000 on July 13, 2005.

During that meeting, then Councilman Pete Waldrep offered a warning about setting precedent by giving money to troubled private developments. According to meeting minutes, Waldrep said, "They (developers) run out of money and they want to hold a gun to your (City Council) head saying, 'I (developer) don't know if the project will be finished.' That's what brings politics into the Marietta Redevelopment Corporation."

The developers received their TAD money anyway, reassuring homebuyers to invest in the government-backed projects.

Now, city officials have essentially turned their back on these residents.

Proponents of the redevelopment gamble still run city hall and blame the recession for their failure and promise that the city is "well positioned to transform itself once the economy comes back."

The truth is that failure was assured before the bottom dropped out of the housing market and nobody can predict what future housing demands will be.

Experience and Economics 101 teaches that government should not insert itself into the marketplace to the extent of Marietta's grand redevelopment scheme.

Marietta was not alone. The Cobb County Commissioners and state and federal governments also subsidized the real estate and housing industry. Government meddling in the housing market jacked up the prices of goods and services and drove out jobs in other economic sectors, keeping wages low for everyone.

Real estate and housing speculation became Cobb's primary economic engine and the actual value of property was, and remains unknown. Ever increasing property taxes, sales taxes, impact fees and other miscellaneous land development related charges funded road building, sewer tunnels, resource consumption, power lines and redevelopment bonding schemes that allowed more housing to be built even when qualified buyers were no longer available and water shortages loomed.

When this government-subsidized house of cards collapsed, it left the metro area with double-digit unemployment, elevated property taxes and school systems on the verge of financial ruin.

Last month another group of TAD victims crowded city hall when they learned BB&T was asking for a variance on unfinished portions of its repossessed Manget Development. These homeowners were demanding completion of dangerous and unsightly situations resulting from the project's abandonment. Their previous appeals to the bank and the city were not fruitful. They were concerned the city would give the bank what it asked, removing any leverage they might have to obtain relief.

In response, the City Council summoned bank officials to its chambers, but the bank failed to show. BB&T holds the $8.4 million TAD bond the city issued in 2005, and probably has more leverage over the city than vice-versa.

Banks do not like to directly own, manage or develop property. Being in such a position means they are losing money. They delay paying property taxes, cut back or ignore maintenance, and sale foreclosures to the first buyer with money, be it al-Qaida or a farmer for a chicken house.

Marietta taxpayers are already paying to mow the grass over foreclosed properties and city officials are waiting to see what other banks are going to need in order to unload Marietta's orphaned redevelopment projects.

The Development Agreements between the developers who received TAD subsidies and bought discounted public land from the city and the Housing Authority all contain a default clause. The Frasier Circle agreement with Deerfield Development Corp. is typical, and states "An Act of Bankruptcy" constitutes a default and gives the city the right to "seek any remedy at law or in equity that may be available as a consequence of Deerfield's default."

When I asked city and Housing Authority officials why they had not enacted the remedies specified under the default article, they indicated that it was their belief that "the developers had suffered enough."

One has to ask what it will take for these officials to decide that he taxpayer and the inhabitants of the orphaned redevelopment projects have "suffered enough" and go after the private assets needed to dress up these developments so they are no longer a blight upon the city's landscape.

Larry Wills is a retired recycling consultant and is writing a book about Marietta's city government.