The developer trying to bring a Portillo's restaurant to Peoria indicated recently that the blowback he's gotten over his request for a special taxing district has him scratching his head.

We have that in common, as we've been scratching to near baldness not just over an exceedingly popular Portillo's needing public assistance but over more than three decades of wrongheaded local economic development policies that have produced such underwhelming returns for the city of Peoria that it now has an $8 million budget deficit to show for it.

The sales tax hike sought by developer William Torchia for a risk that ought to be his and Portillo's alone is back in slightly more palatable form, but our position remains the same: We welcome Portillo's but not the single-business tax — of any amount — we're being told is necessary to get them here.

First, there's no reason to involve taxpayers at all. Either this is an excellent, high-traffic location surrounded by profitable, compatible businesses with quick and easy access to and visibility from a major interstate that will allow Portillo's to thrive, or it's not. If customers wouldn't notice one more percentage point on the sales tax, neither will they notice a 1 percent increase in menu prices. Do the latter, accomplish the same thing.

Second, we can play the semantics game too; call this a subsidy or incentive, an investment or most laughably a "user fee" — what, governments are applying tolls to restaurants now, like they're roads? — it's a benefit competitors that have paid their dues in Peoria are not getting. That's unfair. It establishes a lousy precedent. Indeed, if we're Avanti's or Donnelly's, Agatucci's or Spotted Cow, Alexander's or Lariat, Fish House or One World Cafe or any other locally owned restaurant with a long stake in this community, we are lined up outside City Hall, hands out, attorneys on retainer should the City Council not likewise pony up.

Third, we're told Portillo's will have quite the economic impact, though from this perch the projections are in part self-serving speculation from those well compensated to have such views, not a one of whom owns a crystal ball capable of seeing 30 years on. We're even told Portillo's will be a tourism draw, bringing in big, net-gain dollars from outside the city. First, we've heard it all before — on Riverfront Village, Midtown Plaza, InPlay, etc. — with the sunny projections not panning out. Second, there is no more an infinite supply of disposable income for dining out than there is for any other entertainment venue. Third, why don't public officials who like to play favorites ever subtract the revenue lost when competitors suffer as a result (see Cub Foods)?

Fourth, we'll go out on a limb and predict that those scratching their heads most of all will belong to future generations looking back on this era in disbelief that local governments were so eager to chase low-wage jobs with taxpayer money, to pick winners and losers in their own little free markets. The change-life-as-we-know-it, just-gotta-have-it breathlessness that can accompany these projects, the attitude that a vibrant economy can be built one restaurant at a time, diminish us. Earth to Peoria: Portillo's is not Amazon.

Finally, it's fair to be turned off by any tactics pitting one local community against another with false or misleading information, and by the entitlement mentality that suggests taxpayers owe any business anything. We might reject this deal on that score alone.

Portillo's is a good and growing organization that will do very well in Peoria. It's an opportunity. Why get off on the wrong foot? If this is still the price, it's a price too high, for all the above reasons.