Dear Editor:

It seems that 100-year floods have grown impatient. They now occur at least once each decade. And in Ames we saw that one of the most vulnerable sites when flooding occurs is along South Duff Avenue.

So now would seem to be a good time to re-evaluate, as a matter of public policy, whether we should encourage more building on South Duff.

Instead, the City Council has already made some decisions and will soon be facing some that would not only encourage, but reward, large companies for building there. Petco, the second or first largest pet store in the country, depending on your measure, is applying for a property tax abatement so it can build on South Duff Avenue between Target and Wal-Mart. Is it good public policy to allow any more building in the flood plain? Is it good public policy to give tax advantages to companies for building in the flood plain?

Ames has many locally-owned businesses, veterinarians and Brekke’s for instance, who sell pet food and supplies, and all those businesses pay property and income taxes. Do we really want to reward Petco, which is headquartered in California, and allow it to compete unfairly by reducing its property taxes?

And we cannot assume that Petco will pay any Iowa income taxes, because in Iowa national corporations are allowed to shift their income from Iowa to states with lower or no corporate income taxes. Local businesses don’t have that tax ploy available to them; they pay their fair share.

Do we really want to reward a non-locally-owned company for making the flooding worse next time? In my opinion, if the City Council lets Petco build and then gives the company a tax abatement, it’s the taxpayers who are being soaked.