It is called a TIF. The acronym stands for tax increment financing. It is a way for communities to capture the additional property tax revenue generated by a new development. And it is complicated.

Here is the short version of how it works. A developer, in this case, Paul Coulombe, has recently put a ton of dough ($11 million) in his Boothbay Harbor Country Club. He said plans to put a lot more ($17 million) in to it.

Just like anyone else, when Coulombe improves his property, his property taxes go up. The TIF project will do nothing to Coulmbe’s tax bill. He won’t gain a dime. But the town could benefit. Town officials propose to issue a $2.5 million bond and use the new taxes on Coulombe’s country club project to pay it off.

Here is where it gets a bit more complicated. Town officials are not sure what they want to do with the money. It might be this or that. That will be decided later by the selectmen and you, the voters.

Why the rush? If the town does not know what they want to do with the money, why  are they in a hurry?

Boothbay Town Manager Jim Chaousis said it all has to do with state imposed tax assessment deadlines. If the town adopts the TIF project before April 1, 2014, the country club’s increased property taxes will be used to pay off the bond.

If not, the new taxes will go into the town’s general fund and will hike the town’s total valuation and any state revenue sharing and educational subsidies will go down.

He argues it is a chance to make some improvements that could lure new businesses and additional jobs to town.

On the other side, some folks are bitterly opposed to the whole deal. They suggest it will change the character of the place and bring about all sorts of unknown consequences. Some folks say they just don’t trust Coulombe to complete his proposed project.

That is the whole TIF argument in a nutshell.

Now it is your time to decide. I urge you to all go to the polls on November 5 and vote.

On another topic, I hope you read today’s story about the recent Maine Press Association journalism contest and how the staffers that put out your favorite newspaper picked up some 25 awards, including nine first place prizes.

If you run into news staffers Ben Bulkeley, Katrina Clark, Susan Johns, Lisa Kristoff, Ryan Leighton, Sue Mello or Suzi Thayer, give them a pat on the back. And don’t forget our great production and sales team staff who won awards, Gary Dow, Kathy Frizzell and Sarah Morley. Our favorite columnist, Tim Sample, was honored with a first place award, too.

I am proud as punch for all of them, and I am sure you are, too.

Almost two years ago, I was hired out of retirement (for the third time) and given a mission to use my experience to help a good paper get better. We worked on the craft and pushed to serve our readers and our community. We opened up our pages to different opinions and did our best to convince a certain hospital administration to keep a certain hospital open. Sadly, we failed at that task.

But we succeeded in making the paper better. And we jumped headfirst into Web-based journalism.The math wizards at Google tell us lots of folks like our Web products and that bodes well for the future.

After our staffers cleaned up at the MPA awards ceremony, it occurred to me that my job was done. I think it is time to slip back into retirement and reintroduce myself to my bride, our kids and our grandkids.

So after this week, I will no longer be the top editor, but I still plan to write editorials and other stories.

Thanks to the staffers who let me work with them. Thanks to our advertisers who helped pay the bills. Thanks to our readers who put up with an editor “from away.”

I have enjoyed the ride. I hope you enjoyed it, too.