"School taxes captured by tifas are funded by every single school in the state. Public education dollars are skimmed off to fund economic development to the tune of tens of million of dollars annually. If AA loses $1 million to the LDFA and Lansing makes it up, that’s $1 million lost that would have been otherwise available for school spending somewhere, whether AA, Bridgman, Detour or Ontonagon.

While the state says they hold the local schools harmless, the reality is that the pot of money to provide public education is smaller because of it. That’s the dirty little secret of tifas."

- Mary Eastcreek, The Ann Arbor Chronicle, June 25, 2014