Fresh Loaf

Dave Williams of the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that the Atlanta Development Authority has declined to hang on to the $6 million of Atlanta Public Schools funding generated from the Beltline tax allocation district.

Remember that whole deal? There was a lot of head scratching about whether the school board was in danger of violating its charter with such an arrangement. The “pay-us-back-over-10-years” thing sure as hell sounded like a loan, something cash-strapped APS isn’t allowed to do.

Well:

…on Wednesday, authority officials said potential legal complications surrounding receipt of the funds prompted them to decide not to take the money. Instead, the authority will focus on moving forward by the end of this year with a bond issue to support the Beltline project.

No word on exactly what those potential legal complications were. But it’s likely that the lawyering and research needed to iron out the kinks would’ve stressed more man hours and brain cells than the $6 million was worth.

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1. Mayor’s rebuttal of Atlanta crime rankings misleading and incomplete (How’s that for a thorough headline! No wonder this post was so popular.)

2. Suspected Holocaust museum shooter identified as Holocaust denier James Von Brunn (Octogenarian authored idiotic prose, including the book, Kill The Best Gentiles!)

3. Ga. drought ‘is over,’ water restrictions eased (Environmentalists hope residents will continue conserving water. Unfortunately, Georgians have very short memories.)

4. Atlanta schools, ADA strike deal over TAD funds (Atlanta Development Authority will return $18 million to the cash-strapped school system.)

5. Buckhead coalition pushing for end to Ga. 400 toll (Two-decade-old promise vowed to shut down the cash-cow toll booth in 2011.)

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After several months of negotiations, the Atlanta Public Schools board yesterday approved a deal with the Atlanta Development Authority that will return $18 million to the cash-strapped school system.

At issue was $18 million the ADA had already collected from the Beltline and Perry/Bolton tax allocation districts, or TADs. TADs are complex — and controversial — redevelopment tools which use property tax increases to pay for roads, sewers and other infrastructure fixes in traditionally blighted areas. (Atlantic Station and downtown’s Ivan Allen Plaza are examples of TADs.) In February 2008, the Georgia Supreme Court banned school boards from participating in the projects. In November 2008, Georgia voters approved a state Constitutional amendment that would allow school boards to participate. In April, state lawmakers passed — and Gov. Sonny Perdue signed — a bill that fine-tuned TADs and allowed schools the option not to participate in the projects.

(more…)

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The new bill clamps down on what local government officials can consider a “blighted” area.

From Dave Williams at the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Only neighborhoods truly in need of taxpayer-funded redevelopment would qualify as tax allocation districts under legislation signed this week by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

The legislation, designed to accompany a constitutional amendment ratified by Georgia voters last fall, tightens the definitions of “blighted” and “deteriorated” areas under the state’s TAD law.

…

Under the new law, only neighborhoods marked by substandard buildings, high vacancy rates and high poverty and unemployment could qualify as TADs. That way, only properties too unattractive to lure private investment could be redeveloped with TAD money.

School boards — which chip in the largest chunk of funding if they participate in a TAD — still have a choice as to whether they want to participate in the projects.

The tough economy has forced some cash-strapped school systems to renegotiate — or even rethink — their roles in TADs. Atlanta Public Schools and Atlanta Development Authority officials are in talks to split nearly $18 million that had already been generated from the Beltline TAD prior to a 2008 state Supreme Court ruling that said TADs were unconstitutional. (The school board says it still supports the Beltline, just that it wants to begin kicking in money this year.) Gainesville City Schools recently voted to opt out of a TAD in which it initially planned to participate.

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Jim Walls at Atlanta Unfiltered reports:

Atlanta school officials took action Monday to keep some or all of an $18 million pot collected for the city’s BeltLine project.

The Board of Education voted to change the effective date of its decision to allow school tax money to be spent on the BeltLine. The board first OK’d the funding in 2005. Under a complicated resolution that you really don’t want to read, the board said its decision will take effect this year instead.

In the meantime, the board plans to renegotiate the split for the $18 million that’s already in the bank.

School officials emphasized they still back the BeltLine. “We voted to support the beltline in December of 2005, and that support level is still there,” board Chair LaChandra Butler Burks said.

APS staff sent CL a copy of Monday’s resolution. Take a look at it here.

And why should any of this matter? Walls sums it up very nicely.

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… but it was just a vote of Atlanta Public School students. According to an APS press release:

Obama crushes McCain
in APS student mock election

More than 17,000 students in 70 Atlanta Public Schools participated in a national mock election Thursday, chosing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama over Republican rival John McCain by a margin of more than 17-to-1. …

Obama garnered 15,798 votes or 92 percent of ballots cast, compared with McCain’s 910 votes or 5 percent. Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney won 99 votes, independent Ralph Nader won 62, Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party won 59 and Libertarian Bob Barr won 45.

Of course, 86 percent of Atlanta Public School students are black, and African-Americans nationally are polling around 98 percent for Obama. I wonder what the mock vote would have been in Cherokee County.

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