"When a government body provides a subsidy to a developer, it must finance that payout, usually through debt. Governments typically rely on three different methods to repay this debt - bonds, TIFs or STAs.
Local governments use TIFs to subsidize developers in order avoid statutory requirements that require voters to evaluate and approve the debt via referendum.
TIFs mean that property owners outside the development pay both the cost of public services to themselves
AND a portion of the cost of providing services to the new property owners covered by the TIF. In other words, current residents carry more than their fair share of the tax burden for public services." (source: http://www.controlgrowth.org)
