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January 02, 2020
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Newspaper Page Text
BH
4 | Education
Facebook.com/TheReporterNewspapers ■ twitter.com/Reporter_News
APS superintendent continues to express tax break concerns
BY HANNAH GRECO
hannah@reporternewspapers.net
Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen continued to ex
press her concern with tax breaks for projects in “overdeveloped” areas at a Dec.
10 North Atlanta Parents for Public Schools meeting. Parents were interested in
her concerns and raised some themselves.
“The TADs are not managed well at all,” Carstarphen said at the meeting,
which was held at E. Rivers Elementary School in Buckhead. “If you know [the
area] is already overdeveloped, why are we giving money?”
TADs, or tax allocation districts, are intended to spark development in un
derserved areas that would not be developed without the designation of the tax
dollars.
Projects in TADs are approved for tax abatements during their construction
period and essentially get to spend their property-tax money on themselves to
theoretically speed development. Carstarphen said $21.2 million of APS’ tax rev
enue was abated in 2019, a 56% increase from $13.2 million in 2018.
Carstarphen said certain projects, such as luxury apartments or boutique
hotels in Buckhead, do not pass the “but-for” test, meaning they likely would be
built without tax breaks as an incentive.
“That hotel is going to be built,” Carstarphen said. “But we have got to stop. At
least ask the question and have people answer it.”
Carstarphen’s presentation raised questions with North Atlanta parents
about the process.
“When [the abatement] ends, do [developers] supposedly pay?” one parent
asked.
“I know [the developers] do not have to pay school taxes, do they still have to
pay all of the other city taxes?” another parent asked.
“How can we help?” another parent asked.
Carstarphen did not have definite answers on the specific questions parents
raised. She recommended that NAPPS have Tom Tidwell, a Buckhead resident
who is on the Fulton County Development Authority, the group that votes on
TADs, to speak at a future meeting.
Carstarphen also encouraged residents to pay close attention to who commission
ers are electing to be put on the development authority boards.
“Analyze who puts people on these things,” Carstarphen said.
This is not Carstarphen’s first time speaking on her concerns with tax breaks that
directly affect APS.
Carstarphen also blasted tax breaks at a Nov. 20 Northwest Community Alliance
meeting and praised the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods for launching a new tax-
reform task force she inspired. Tidwell was in attendance of the NCA meeting and said
he is questioning some of the deals that are given abatements because they do not pass
HANNAH GRECO
Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen expresses her concerns with
development tax breaks at a Dec. 10 North Atlanta Parents for Public Schools meeting.
the “but for” test.
At an Oct. 10 BCN meeting, Carstarphen suggested a neighborhood tax-abatement
reform “task force” and it was quickly taken up by the organization.
Carstarphen’s main focus at her appearance at a BCN meeting in 2018 was tax incen
tives, saying the loss of revenue could devastate the district.
At the Dec. 10 meeting, Carstarphen also reviewed her progress in boosting the grad
uation rate and other metrics since she took the job in 2014 in the wake of an infamous
test-cheating scandal. The Atlanta Board of Education decided in September to not ex
tend her contract, which runs through June 2020. Carstarphen did not discuss her con
tract at the NAPPS meeting.
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