Real Deal With Ron Sivak

In this episode of the Real Deal Podcast, we discuss the past, present and future of the recently defunct Alabama Historic Tax Credit that has been praised and criticized in the media since its inception in 2013 until ending recently this year. On one side of the local fence in Mobile sits Elizabeth Sanders, CEO of the Downtown Mobile Alliance (DMA) who has been a strong proponent of the act since inception. Ensconced across Mobile Bay in Baldwin County sits Senator Trip Pittman (R-Fairhope) who famously called the act "welfare for the rich" and instrumental in the program's failed bid at renewal and death in Goat Hill's Senate. Lauded by proponents, it was argued that the act assisted with dynamic economic growth downtown by attracting non-local investors with buckets of cash bent on reinvigorating dilapidated commercial properties; additionally the Alabama Historic Tax Credit ostensibly helped ignite a new "big city" buzz recently felt in a centuries old downtown business district, city and region. Invi