APS should remember the bargain it made on Atlanta’s TADs

TADs weren’t intended to be permanent growth claims

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

I am not opposed to TADs. Atlantic Station was probably the textbook example of where this redevelopment tool made sense. A contaminated former steel mill with little infrastructure required extraordinary public-private investment.

The TAD worked, redevelopment occurred, and the Atlantic Station TAD eventually ended.

At my final meeting as board chair, I voted for the Atlanta Beltline TAD.

Its direct educational benefit required a broader interpretation, but we believed its potential to transform Atlanta justified APS participation.

My experience also taught me that APS’s participation is valuable, and the school board has both the right and responsibility to negotiate accordingly. A later board demonstrated that principle particularly well in 2019.

APS did not simply agree to turn over future school tax revenues. It negotiated an extensive intergovernmental agreement with the city.

The resolution approving that agreement stated that APS needed to balance support for economic development with its educational mission by establishing a “predictable, foreseeable, and time-bound” plan for the use of education tax revenues in TADs.

Under that agreement, APS agreed to participate in four Corridor TADs — Campbellton Road, Hollowell/MLK, Metropolitan Parkway and Stadium Neighborhoods — but its contribution was capped.

The agreement also established Dec. 31, 2050, as a hard outside date for APS participation unless the school board later gave additional consent.

APS negotiated protections elsewhere as well, including reimbursements and payments in lieu of taxes in the Westside TAD and specific termination provisions protecting APS’s education tax increment. Atlantic Station was put on a path toward closure, with no new bonds or redevelopment projects and excess revenues directed toward retiring debt.

APS did not reject economic development. It negotiated the terms of its participation. That history is particularly relevant now.

Worthwhile projects do not become responsibility of APS

The mayor is asking APS to consent to extending six TADs through 2056. For the four Corridor TADs, APS has already committed to participate through 2050. The question therefore is not simply whether those neighborhoods deserve continued investment. They do.

The question is why APS should now agree to extend a commitment that a previous board deliberately made finite.

What has changed since that agreement was negotiated? What specific projects require APS participation beyond 2050? How much additional school tax revenue would be committed? What measurable results have the existing TADs produced? And what would APS receive in exchange for extending its participation?

Those aren’t hostile questions. They are questions a school board should ask before committing education tax revenues for another generation.

Fulton County recently asked similar questions and declined to participate in the extension. It adopted a framework calling for updated tax bases, clearly identified projects, limits on the county’s contribution, audit rights and greater accountability.

The mayor strongly criticized that decision. But Fulton commissioners are not obligated to make the mayor’s redevelopment plan work. They are obligated to exercise their own judgment about county tax revenues. Neither is the Atlanta Board of Education obligated to make the plan work.

With Fulton County declining to participate, APS’s decision has become pivotal. That makes it even more important that the board evaluate the proposal independently.

There is much to admire in the mayor’s proposed investments in underserved neighborhoods. Affordable housing, transit, parks, trails and economic development can unquestionably improve the lives of Atlanta families.

But worthwhile projects do not automatically become the financial responsibility of Atlanta Public Schools.

The APS board understood that distinction in 2019. It supported redevelopment while negotiating caps, reimbursements, protections and firm dates for ending its participation. Today’s board should apply the same standard.

Before extending APS’s commitment, the city should demonstrate what has been accomplished, what remains to be done, what the additional years will cost APS and why extending the existing agreement represents a better use of education tax revenues than allowing those revenues eventually to return to the school system.

APS can support Atlanta’s growth without writing City Hall a blank check.

The principle adopted by the school board in 2019 remains the right one today: APS participation in economic development should be predictable, foreseeable and time-bound.

Atlanta’s students deserve nothing less.

Michael Holiman is a retired government affairs consultant, former chair of the Atlanta Board of Education, former president of the Morningside Lenox Park Association (MLPA) and former chair of Atlanta Fulton Family Connection. He has lived in Atlanta since 1985.

Send letters to the editor of 250 words or fewer with your name, city or town and contact information to letters@ajc.com.