I hope you’ll attend the Dec 1 public hearing on annexation and speak about your concerns.

Annexation is an outgrowth of the problem – projected insufficient tax revenue. So far, the Annexation Report says it’s either do nothing and raise taxes, or annex and reap the rewards. The rewards are posted in a chart posted later in the report.

I question the numbers used in the chart. For example, how can commercial expenses be the same as commercial/residential expenses?

Please read the annexation report. It is revealing and may provide you with questions that can be answered at the hearing.

I am not addressing the problems with annexation perceived by CSD. Others are all over that. I am concerned that the city is not giving due consideration at this time to reducing services OTHER than the school system.

Did you know that we have an ACTIVE LIVING department within the City? I believe there are seven employees. It would be interesting to know what that is all about… what it costs, what are the benefits, is it a good value for the money spent, etc?

I asked her how much she thought that might cost but she never got back to me.

Enough about CSD.

So taxes are going up if City of Decatur doesn’t annex? Well, blow me down!
* 50% vs 40% (elsewhere) assessment rate
* $25 million in brand spanking new bond revenue
* housing prices at historic highs resulting in commensurate valuations.

Would one NOT conclude that this bodes well for City revenue stream?

So, we are raising taxes, eh????

What’s wrong with this picture???

I intend to find out. I hope there are others out there who are just as concerned.

Few will pay a half million+ for a house and $10,000 per year in property taxes to attend an overcrowded, overwhelmed and, as a result, poorly performing school system. We already nearly fail or actually fail AYP at a couple of schools each year. This will take us over the top and send us down the NCLB road to Hades.

The thing that was most disconcerting was that Ms. Merriss didn’t even have figures on the revenue/costs/benefits of each segment and… get this… didn’t even know how much the annexation increases the percentage of commercial to residential. Just didn’t know! Apparently, her guesstimate (kinda like the latest number of student “guesstimate”) is that it increases the percentage of commercial from about 14% to 16%. I’m not sure if that figure is with or without the residential south of College. I don’t think she made that distinction.

I’m really concerned that this whole thing is being done in a very footloose and fancy free manner. I’d be disappointed if the Commission was willing to move forward with the shoddy reports and estimates that they have been burdened with.

Bill Floyd did say that Decatur would be fine with or without the annexation. That was about the first thing out of his mouth at the beginning of the work session. The tax savings looked like they would be about $700ish for an owner of a $350K house, assuming that the reality of the annexation blends perfectly with the projections. I still don’t get why we are going into this uncharted territory (it could be charted but no ones seems to want to bother) for a 2% increase in commercial.

I wonder if anyone has ever considered the possibility that perhaps the best move for CSD in all of this is to just merge with the county system. I know that this sounds radical and I know DeKalb County Schools has its issues. However, CSD has been in a constant state of alarm since we move here a decade ago. They are constantly in dire straits… constantly on the edge of a cliff and about to drop into the great abyss. There have also been constant changes and constant instability. I know I’ll get flamed for this… but it’s not a bad mental exercise to think it through. It would be interesting to ponder – even as just an academic question.

Wish my clients would do that. But then I don’t work much for government.

Oh and what happened to the the 315 report? I thought it was going to be out in 2 weeks and it’s been a month.

I’m really getting a bad feeling about this.

Hey but Obama won so everythings going to be alright!

I hope we all get some answers tonight. Please feel free to follow up with your observations in the morning.