An AJC article from late yesterday – recaping the Decatur School Board budget meeting on Tuesday – quotes one Decatur resident upset that the Board isn’t considering raising the millage rate (read: raising taxes) instead of furloughing teachers for three days in the coming school year.  In a comment last night, Karass agreed.

I’d like to get an unofficial read on this again, because when I asked at the end of 2008, 70% of those responding to a DM poll had some concern about tax levels in the city.  And things weren’t looking all that bad budget-wise at that point.

On October 13th, District 2 candidate Patti Garrett asserted that the city needed a more immediate solution to the “crushing burden” that city taxes can place on “some, especially our seniors on fixed incomes.”

Garrett writes that she applauds the city commission’s recent resolution to up the low-income senior homestead exemption from $30,000 to $50,000, but adds “that’s not good enough” and details the legal reasons why the earliest the city could provide any additional tax relief to Decatur residents would be in April 2011.

Garrett’s solution?

I propose something altogether different from the exemption approach. I call it the Assessment Ombudsman.

It works like this: The city would create a volunteer, appointed board, not unlike our other citizen boards, whose job would be to help applicable Decatur residents navigate the sometimes complex bureaucracy of the DeKalb County assessor’s office. These folks would provide expertise, advocacy and support, making it easier for seniors and others to appeal their assessments and, in turn, reduce their tax burden if warranted.

In effect, we’d be leveling the playing field for those unable or ill equipped to do so themselves. And we’d be doing it at no cost to our residents.

So, we all know the state of Georgia has no money, right?

And thanks to new House Bill 143, when the state has no money, it no longer has to pay local governments to fund the Homeowner’s Tax Relief Grant.  How convenient!  So guess what?  Come on, just take a guess…

You got it! Say good-bye to that substantial HTRG reduction on your property tax bill!

However, unlike many metro governments that are just hoping to avoid total financial anarchy, Decatur’s reserve fund seems to be helping the city keep a clear head.  And instead of trying to figure out how much they’ll need to raise taxes during a recession, the Decatur city commission is talking about tax relief at tonight’s commission meeting.

According to a note (pages 25 to 27) from Asst. City Manager Andrea Arnold included with tonight’s city commission agenda, the commission recently asked city staff for options that can provide quick tax relief to residents, since the HTRG reduction won’t be on the second installment of our 2009 bill.  Arnold has come back to the commission this week with the determination that there is currently only one option available to provide immediate relief on the second installment of the 2009 tax bill.

This is the GS1 or low-income senior exemption that is available to resident homeowners that are 62 years of age or older and the household income does no exceed $25,000.  Currently eligible homeowners receive an exemption of $30,000 for City taxes and an exemption of $50,000 for school taxes.  The City Commission has the legal authority to increase this exemption up to $50,000.  Once the exemption is increased, it cannot be decreased.

Arnold recommends increasing the exemption to the full $50,000 for city taxes, which will reduce revenue available to the City by about $100,000.

Longer term Arnold notes that in future years if the commission wishes to increase the city’s homestead exemption they would need to go before the General Assembly and then face a voter referendum.  This means that the earliest an increased exemption could make it through all the red tape and onto your tax bill would be April 2011.  She also suggests the possibility of “creating a new homestead exemption through the General Assembly that would provide a temporary (i.e., one year) exemption if the household income drops below a certain threshold.”

Having a guest in town last night, we opted for 1/2 bottles at Watershed over the commission meeting, but the AJC reports this morning that the DeVry annexation passed unanimously.  The commission also approved the change in zoning to “mixed-use.”

Money wise…

As is, the campus is valued at $13.5 million, generating about $222,000 in taxes for the city and school district.

With 550 residential units plus $10 million worth of commercial space, the land is projected to be worth $65 million and put more than $1 million into city and school district coffers.

This should be a very interesting project once it gets off the ground.  If it does indeed offer walkable retail to Sycamore Heights residents, one can assume that the desirability of that neighborhood will increase quickly.

Playing a little catch up here this morning.  Luckily the AJC is helping me out!

The city commission officially voted on the coming fiscal year’s budget on Monday, holding the millage rate at 13.035.

Here’s the money quote from the AJC article (pun intended)…

The spending plan includes money to renovate the main firehouse, redesign the city’s website and upgrade equipment in municipal parks.

The city will also begin longer-term initiatives next year, including a strategic plan for the city, a proposed urban agriculture program and a master for the Beacon Complex that now houses the city’s police department.

As always, while DeKalb and Atlanta garner front-page stories with dramatic budget cuts and tax hikes, prudent ol’ Decatur can’t even get on the front page of the Metro section, even though its the standout in this situation.  A city that saved during the economic boom and can now temper changes by dipping into reserves seems unheard of in the 21st century.

So, I’d like to give a standing ovation to everyone involved who had the foresight to save in a world driven to spend, spend, spend.  You deserve it!

Thanks to a fiscally conservative budget and a relatively strong housing market, Decatur has proposed keeping its millage rate unchanged in the coming fiscal year.

On the other hand, DeKalb County has some serious shortfalls to make up, thanks to things like plummeting real estate prices and the recent incorporation of commercial-rich Dunwoody.  So even though they’ve been trying to cut the budget, it’s not surprising to find out that County taxes will also be going up…for some more than others.

Here’s commissioner Jeff Radar’s note that was posted on the Clairmont Heights blog…

DECATUR – The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners has tentatively adopted millage rates which will require an increase in property taxes by the following percentages:

Unincorporated 3.73%

Avondale Estates Special Services 0.73%
Chamblee Special Services 0.43%
Decatur Special Services 1.33%
Debt Service 6.94%

All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held on the following dates, at the indicated times [at the Maloof Administration Building Auditorium, 1300 Commerce Drive, Decatur, Georgia]:

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 10:00 A.M.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 6:00 P.M.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 10:00 A.M.

When annexation was delayed earlier this year, this closing of the tax gap between Decatur and DeKalb was something the mayor predicted would help convince unincorporated residents to accept Decatur annexation.

Just one more piece of the puzzle.

P.S. Anyone know what the heck “Debt Service” is?

After seeing the AJC article about Decatur being one of three cities with increased tax values, I was curious about specifics.  At tonight’s City Commission meeting, City Manager Peggy Merriss laid those details out on the table, literally and figuratively.

The city lost 4 million in property values in the past fiscal (?) year, but gained 30 million from new construction.

Even so, the city will use 1.3 million over the next two years to cover the gap between revenues and expenditures, without cutting programs or raising the millage.

I believe I heard someone say that the full budget will be available online this coming Wednesday.

The AJC reports that of the 10 cities in DeKalb County, only Decatur, Avondale and Chamblee saw a cumulative increase in property assessments thanks to new construction.

Without new construction, all three cities would have seen a decline, according to the article.

So I caught the first hour of the annexation meeting on cable last night.  (Comcast we really need to talk about you cutting it short after only an hour)

The room was chock full of locals (not even much standing room from what I could see), many of whom opposed annexation and lived in the potential annexation areas…of what I saw, Judd Owen and Pat Herold were notable exceptions (in the first hour).

The room clapped and sometimes cheered for each anti-annexation speaker.  I only saw one guy stand up in support of annexation because he had concerns about traffic on N. Decatur Road.  This was a very different scene from the one this past January, when there was a more equal balance between both supporters and opposition.

I’d appreciate an update about the rest of the meeting (beyond the first hour) from anyone that stuck around for the whole night.

UPDATE: David over at InDecatur has an interesting late night set of clarification points from the commission.

Just a reminder that tonight is the city commission’s public hearing on annexation – 7:30p at City Hall.

In addition to the online Open Forum, this is the time and place for the public to be heard by the commission on the annexation issue.

In lieu of the hearing, MyATL Tv chimes in with a poorly formatted article on the issue.  Also they provide confusing quotes from the mayor and follow up with little context.  Enjoy!

A lot has changed in the past year since the city first started going through the public process of looking at annexation.  Back then I stated that communication with the school board seemed to be crucial to the success or failure of this initiative.  Now the data provided by Rosser through the school board to the commission seems to have problems because no one caught that Rosser’s projections hadn’t been expanded with the annexation map.

I get that the city commission is trying to stay ahead of imminiant tax hikes due to rising costs, (around 2/3 of respondents to my unofficial survey said taxes were a concern to them), but with this latest hiccup in the form of inaccurate student projections, perhaps we need to take a step back and reevaluate before going forward with this idea.  If I was a commission member, I’d be really hesitant to support any sort of annexation plan where projections that affect 60% of my expendatures were still uncertain.