Kasim Reed: Atlanta tax increase should be smaller
June 11, 2009 at 6:49 pm by Scott Henry in News
State senator and mayoral candidate Kasim Reed held a hastily called press conference today at the shuttered Fire Station No. 7 in the West End to make two proposals:
- The city should reopen No. 7 and keep all existing fire stations open.
- The city should raise taxes by 1 mill — and no more — in order to end police and fire department furloughs.
“There’s a crisis in Atlanta,” he said at the start of the press event. “Public safety is critical to Atlanta’s future and we need to do what it takes to end the furloughs.”
(Apparently, Andy, Reed doesn’t believe the crime problem is simply one of perception.)
Mayor Franklin has proposed, in a budget now on its way to the full Council, that the city raise property taxes by 3 mills — an increase that will allow one-day-a-week furloughs to be ended for all city workers. But Reed advocated for a 1-mill increase, saying that’s enough to put police and fireman back on the job.
As for No. 7 and other fire stations where operating hours have been cut back, Reed said closing stations costs taxpayers more in the long run through higher homeowner insurance rates.
Finally, without naming names, he aimed a few barbs at an opponent, Councilwoman Mary Norwood, by pointing out that simply criticizing the mayor for police furloughs while offering no suggestions as to how to come up with the money to pay salaries isn’t helping the situation.
June 11th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Question for the math wizards out there.
With assessed values of properties plummeting, will either a 1 or 3 mil property tax rate increase prop tax revenue enough to halt furloughs?
June 12th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Of course not, Andisheh.
It’s getting cliched, but you can’t tax or spend your way out of debt. The only way to solve the city’s problems aren’t through hiking taxes, but through cutting costs and/or services.
Two ways to make money right off the bat:
1. Privatize the prison
2. Privatize the airport.
Neither will probably happen though because then too many sons/daughters/cousins/nieces or nephews of city big-wigs would lose jobs and/or lucrative contracts and actually be held accountable.
We can’t have that now, can we?
June 12th, 2009 at 11:42 am
There is another way to balance Atlanta’s budget. Stop giving tax concessions to developers and start collecting property and sales taxes due.
50% growth in property digest since 2002 and yet the city takes in less property tax in 2008 than it did in 2002. Similar discrepancy on sales taxes. Apparently one needs to be a math wiz to see something wrong with this picture, Andisheh. The problem is hiding in plain sight: ADA’s secret tax abatements; TADs; and failure to collect unpaid taxes on a massive scale.
But, Andisheh, to answer your question, wait until we see the value of the new digest. Don’t assume the assessors have marked down values. In Morningside the couple of assessments I’ve heard about have jumped significantly.
June 12th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
The City of Atlanta’s budget is based on faulty digest numbers from the tax assessors of both Fulton and Dekalb. Dekalb’s digest shows that there was a drop of 3.8% county wide. Fulton has not released their digest numbers yet but indications are that they are going to be flat to down 2 to 3%. All of the index that track property values show metro Atlanta suffered a 12% drop in property values last year. That means the county digests are inflated by at 9% which means a significant amount of property owners will be appealing their tax assessments which means their bill will be cut by 20% until it is resolved. Also HB 233 froze assessment values which the increases Fulton and Dekalb sent out will all be undone.
June 12th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I’m sure there are numerous areas where cost savings can be achieved but the biggest problem is staring everyone right in the face and no one wants to talk about it. The MASSIVE and unsustainable pension obligations that the city council and Franklin have created is eating up 1/5 of the city’s general fund budget. Put another way, one in every five dollars of the general fund is going to pay people who will no longer work for the city, while we can’t even afford to pay adequate police presence in the city. That is INSANE!
June 12th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Frankly, you’re absolutely right that the pension expense is totally unsustainable.A responsible council would at least drop benefits back to where they were at the start of Franklin’s term.
But I wish a few folks could grasp also that the tax breaks thrown at developers have left the city finances crippled. Tremendous growth in real property values – billions of new high-rises in Buckhead, midtown, Centennial Park and billions more in McMansions in affluent neighborhoods of town. Yet no increase in property tax revenue to the city. Secret giveaways have to be part of the reason for this gap.
Why should the ordinary citizen pay for this nonsense, which is what we are doing in degrades to public safety and raises in the mills? It’s got to stop.
June 12th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
I have got an idea how to fix the City’s economic / budget woes. Choose knowledge, skills & abilities over gender and race when electing or hiring people who should be able to lead and direct the governmental affairs of the City. You might just end up with competent people running the City down the road of success instead down the sewer. No matter where you slice the City, you will find an unmatched level incompetence that cannot be found anywhere else to this severity. Atlanta is rotten, corrupt & incompetent to the core. The sad thing about it is that it is too far gone & will never change. If you think it will…well that is really just a dream…
June 12th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Why should a Firefighter in Atlanta risk his or her life and well being for $30,000 less than other firefighters in the metro area whom do much less and have less risk. Why should a Atlanta Firefighter risk his or her life and well being for a public that does not care about you, your well being or the thankless job that you do for them to keep them safe. (More or Less??)Why should a Atlanta Firefighter risk his or her life for a City Government that does not protect or respect the Firefighter life and well being. If I was a firefighter, it would not be in Atlanta. If you are a Atlanta Firefighter, find a new job before it is too late….Life is too short & Atlanta will NEVER take care of you!! How quick we forget…RIP 343…RIP Soloman…RIP Schwantes…RIP Roberts…RIP Craddock PTB
June 12th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Protect those who protect us. Show respect & do the right thing. There is no great love than the love of one who would give up his life to save another…..return the love.
June 12th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
NotProud,
Identity politics is not obviously the problem, though city hall is rotten. It’s not as if council representatives from Buckhead – Muller, Shook, Norwood – are more effective than the rest. The problem is less one of competence than it is of integrity. They don’t serve the residents: they serve the developers, big contractors, big contributors.
Most close observers with any independence agree that the best council member – who seems to fight for the interests of ordinary residents, does not kow-tow to Shirley, asks tough questions about the big dollar items, knows her stuff – is Felicia Moore, who happens to be an African-American woman.
June 13th, 2009 at 8:43 am
The mayoral race has barely begun and Kasim is hard at work decreasing his chance of winning. Mary Norwood at least has the common sense to say she is against a tax incraease while failing to explain how she will pay for her promises.
Kasim is for a tax increase and quibbles about the size of Mayor Franklin’s proposal. Kasim wants more police and firefighters and more effective city services but does not explain where the money will come from. What will Kasim cut and what will he keep? The worst decision is to propose a tax incraese and not explain the details of revenues and expenses.
June 13th, 2009 at 9:50 am
So that’s Norwood and Reed dismissed. Are we going to let Borders stay mum and avoid taking a position as usual?
Is there actually an honest, competent candidate in the race?
June 13th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Julian Bene,
You seem a little obsessed with this tax break for developers issue but I’m afraid it is misplaced. Bonds are sold to fund the “tax breaks thrown at developers” which are to be repaid by increase in tax as a result of the development. In fact TAD’s designed to have zero negative impact on current tax revenue.
According numbers I’ve read, the city’s pension obligation was $30 million in 2000 and is now $120 million. We could afford to hire an adequate police force with that chunk of money going into that bottomless pit.
June 13th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Both Julian Bene and Frankly are correct. The City needs to get a far better handle on developer give-aways while also reducing the pension costs. There is a huge revenue gap and many significant measures will have to be employed. It is not an “either-or” situation.
June 14th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Current TADs divert nearly $50mm in property tax from the city, county and above all APS (2008 numbers from Atlanta’s comprehensive financial report). So Frankly, take ADA’s misleading spin that TAds don’t cost anything with a sack of salt. TADs may help grow the city but they leave the rest of the taxpayers to pay more to service the new population.
The $13mm of city taxes going to TADs is only part of ADA’s drain on the city’s revenues. What should worry us more are property tax abatements to developers that allow so many new highrises to skip paying tax to the city. One of the worst aspects is that these ‘development bond’ deals are done behind closed doors and there is no reporting of them.
But the overall impact is hiding in plain sight. We have had a 50% increase in the property digest in six years and not a dollar more of tax revenue. That has crippled the city’s budget, left us with cop furloughs, and is forcing the millage increase on the rest of us taxpayers who don’t get the special breaks.
June 14th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
It has nothing to do with “ADA spin”. ADA didn’t invent this concept. It is the way cities across the country have been able to revitalize former depressed areas.
Again, the vast majority of development over that time frame has occurred in Midtown and Buckhead, so blaming the situation on TADs just doesn’t add up.
June 15th, 2009 at 3:18 am
I posted this on the 10th and feel it fits this discussion too so why rewrite…
I have seen Norwood speak ONCE in the last 4 months I have been watching the Council and Committees. That one time was last week, the week before I was blasting her about it on the Sunday Paper with my candidate reviews. Obviously I wasn’t the only person who felt that way.
When she DID speak it sounded like a mouse and when she went in front of the Council she was shaking like a leaf.
She is the LAST thing we need.
Lisa is the second to last I only like her more cause she is a very strong speaker she just lacks content. At least she could be given a script.
I think Felica Moore is the strongest Council Member there is IMO. She is on Finance Exec, Committee on Council and the Transportation Committee’s. I can’t think of 3 more important things to give a hoot about.
Norwood is on the Community Development and Zoning two things we have had an over abundance of.
She’s gonna blow it in the debates anyway.
For lack of option I would go with Kasim Reed only because he understands the State Legislature which is where we really need to be represented.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Sooner or later Norwood will have to explain what she’s been doing for 7 years since she’s dissatisfied with the current state of city government. As a member of Council elected citywide she’s had a lot opportunity to delve into the details, make things happen. She owes the voters an explanation.