Supreme Court nixes Beltline funding

The Supreme Court of Georgia has unanimously ruled that the use of school-tax revenue for non-educational purposes — in this case, to build the Beltline — violates the state constitution. John Woodham, a Fulton County resident opposed to the tax allocation district funding mechanism, represented himself in the case.

What does this mean? Well, it means the Beltline project is now without a whole lotta’ money. About $200 million. Trying to get the exact amount here...getting ranges from $200 million to $1.7 billion.

From the court’s press release:

But in today’s unanimous ruling, written by Justice Hugh Thompson, the Court agrees with Woodham that the use of school funds for non-educational purposes violates the Educational Purpose Clause of the state Constitution. The Court cites two earlier Supreme Court decisions in concluding “that school tax funds levied and collected by the school system cannot constitutionally be applied to benefit the BeltLine project.”

Full press release after the jump. More to come on this later.