Atlanta school board members seem skeptical of mayor’s tax extension plan

He is pushing hard to extend six of Atlanta’s eight tax allocation districts, or TADs, for 30 years in an effort to redevelop historically poor neighborhoods on Atlanta’s south and west sides. TADs are designated districts in which property tax revenue growth within those borders is used to pay for infrastructure improvements within the designated area.

But some remain skeptical that the plan is the best way to bridge Atlanta’s growing wealth gap.

APS Board Chair Jessica Johnson said while building hospitals, grocery stores and working to address inequality is important, the city’s school system needs that revenue to educate students.

Nearly 80% of Atlanta Public Schools’ general fund budget comes from residential and commercial property taxes across the city, she said, and agreeing to forego a significant portion of that future revenue could have lasting impacts on students and staff.

“I don’t want to be the board chair that halts progress,” she said.

Credit: Bita Honarvar

Credit: Bita Honarvar

Dickens is still trying to gain support from his own City Council, pitching the plan as a way to combat decades of systemic racism that continues to plague Atlanta’s poorest neighborhoods and contribute to the city’s massive wealth divide. The council could hold its vote on the extensions in June.

Dickens makes emotional plea

Speaking to council members this week, an emotionally charged Dickens said working to redevelop the city’s poorest neighborhoods is a moral imperative and that “lives depend on it.”

Repeatedly invoking God while addressing a packed committee room at City Hall, Dickens said Atlanta’s TADs have been instrumental to improving neighborhoods. They have been used to help build two grocery stores in food deserts during his administration, he said, along with more than 13,000 units of affordable housing.

Extending the TADs until 2055 would allow the city to accomplish even more, he told council members.

“Atlanta-born, I’m Atlanta-bred, and when I die I’m gonna be Atlanta-dead,” a highly animated Dickens told the crowd. “But I’m gonna have a few more grocery stores on the way!”

He accused critics — who he says have benefited from Atlanta’s TADs — of trying to “pull up the drawbridge” before the city has a chance to improve other communities.

While several City Council members said they plan to sign off on the project, members of the school district and Fulton County’s commission have expressed deep reservations about what the proposal may do to their own general fund budgets.

With the buy-in of all three entities, Dickens’ administration said extending the six TADs would raise an estimated $5 billion to $7 billion. If the commission and school board opt out, that figure would drop to about $2 billion.

Thursday’s discussion with school district officials, organized by the Center for Civic Innovation, focused on whether TADs help or harm Atlanta Schools. It featured two school board members, APS’ chief financial officer and two policy experts who discussed the pros and cons.

APS Vice Chair Ken Zeff, the lone school board member who served on a commission created by the City Council to study the idea, was the commission’s only no-vote when it came to extending the TADs.

Credit: Bita Honarvar

Credit: Bita Honarvar

“The idea that we would take money from kids — another generation of kids — and say we’re going to do these other projects was something I couldn’t get on board with,” Zeff said Thursday.

To the casual observer following along on social media, Zeff said it might appear Dickens’ proposal is primarily about building grocery stores in communities that don’t have them. In reality, that comprises a small portion of his administration’s project list, he said.

Zeff said the majority of funding is proposed to go toward transit expansion, trails, parks and housing. While those things are all important, Zeff said taking funding away from “25 years of kids to pay for that doesn’t seem like good public policy.”

Lisa Bracken, Atlanta Public Schools’ chief financial officer, said the district has seen major increases in employee salaries and the cost of benefits in recent years, while the state Legislature has limited how much school districts can collect in property taxes from homeowners.

“We know that our expenditures are on track to grow faster than our ability to leverage revenue to pay for it,” said Bracken, who noted the district’s costs increase about 4% or 5% each year.

Stephen Owens, an education and policy analyst who has children enrolled in APS schools, said he would be incensed if his school board approves the TAD extensions after voting to close and consolidate more than a dozen schools.

“If my school board closes these schools and then extends these TADs, I will recall every single one of them,” he said.

Fulton County also skeptical

Fulton County commissioners have also expressed skepticism over the mayor’s plan. They have their own budget issues to deal with, including plans to spend $1.2 billion to revamp the notoriously dangerous Rice Street jail.

The commission voted last year to renovate the jail and add a new building with more beds for inmates with mental health and medical issues. The goal is to bring the facility into compliance with an ongoing federal consent decree that stemmed from a U.S. Department of Justice investigation finding conditions there were “abhorrent.”

Fulton Chairman Robb Pitts is currently engaged in a heated race with Commissioner Mo Ivory, who is challenging him for the chairmanship. The two are headed to a June 16 runoff election. Neither returned calls seeking comment.

Commissioner Dana Barrett was among those who served on the NRI oversight commission and expressed reservations in the commission’s final report.

“I do not feel this recommendation recognizes that each contributing jurisdiction has different legal mandates, and therefore different priorities and different budget pressures,” she said in the report.

Dozens of people spoke about the mayor’s initiative at the public hearing — both for and against. Supporters say it’s necessary to help develop Atlanta’s historically underserved communities. Detractors argue that if it isn’t done correctly, it could ramp up gentrification and lead to even more inequality across the city.

Dickens’ legislation includes a number of suggested proposals aimed at keeping longtime residents and businesses from being displaced.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

But even some neighborhood leaders have expressed skepticism.

NPUs want individual TAD votes

Earlier this month, Atlanta’s Planning Advisory Board voted 20-0 to request that any TAD extension legislation be referred to all 25 of Atlanta’s Neighborhood Planning Units for a formal vote.

That would ensure communities across the Atlanta “have a direct voice in decisions that affect the long-term use of the city’s property tax base,” the board said.

The group, comprised of NPU chairs or their designees, also said each proposed TAD extension should be considered separately “rather than bundled into omnibus legislation that obscures individual tradeoffs and limits meaningful public deliberation.”

“Residents deserve the opportunity to review and provide input on the updated plans that will govern land use and public investment in their neighborhoods for decades to come,” the board said.

With a council vote on the extensions likely to come soon, a couple members have also raised the possibility of trying to extend the lucrative Beltline TAD to help with future development in south and west Atlanta. Dickens’ original proposal would have extended all eight TADs, including the Beltline.

It’s a suggestion the mayor seemed amenable to, telling them not to count it out.