Ken Edelstein reports over on MyGreenATL that Decatur and Atlanta are interested in offering Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing to homeowners looking to invest in cleaner energy projects.

The financing option became legal in Georgia after Gov. Sonny Perdue signed House Bill 1388 on May 21st.  How does it work?  Ken explains…

A city or county issues bonds. Homeowners or commercial property owners apply for loans funded by those bonds. The loans must be used to invest in efficiency or clean energy projects. And each property owner pays back the loan over 15 or 20 years (with interest, of course) through a special assessment tacked onto his or her property tax bill.

By attaching the loan to the property instead of making a homeowner take out a personal loan, PACE allows the cost of the project to transfer with the house if it’s sold, instead of being stuck with the original property owner.

It’s not a sizable state tax credit, but hey it’s somethin’.  We’ll have to see if the city commission brings this up at a meeting in the near future.

State Rep. Mike Jacobs is calling out DeKalb County for the property reassessment notices that just went out…

They’re at it again.

The DeKalb County Tax Assessors have sent out reassessment notices. Having received one this year, and having heard from many of my constituents who have received one, it appears that there is a common thread in this year’s crop of reassessments.

The common thread is that, if you filed a Form PT-50R Georgia Real Property Tax Return (click for an article that I previously wrote on how to file this form), the tax assessors included the amount that you provided on your Property Tax Return as the “previous year’s value” for the bygone 2009 tax year. Then, the assessors increased that amount to what had been your 2009 assessment amount, telling you that the old 2009 amount would be the “current year’s value” for the 2010 tax year.

More from Jacobs on what you should do if you received one of these reassessment notice HERE.

h/t: Decatur Tax Blog

The AJC reports that under the newly proposed MARTA budget cuts – which are less severe thanks to “some improvements in revenue” – 15% of MARTA service will be eliminated instead of 25%.  What else?  Well…

All station bathrooms will close except for Five Points.

Rail passengers will wait three to five minutes longer, for trains with fewer cars. Weekend commuters will have no more 4:45 a.m. trains. Bus service will no longer be provided on some parts of Ponce de Leon Avenue, Fairburn Road, Donald L. Hollowell Parkway, Pharr Road and scores, if not hundreds, of other roads. Routes like those to Chastain Park, Braves games and the one between North DeKalb Hospital and Emory University will be eliminated. Ride stores are closing at Lindbergh and Lenox stations.

In addition, about 400 of MARTA’s 5,000 employees would lose their jobs.

It also looks like there will be another fare increase at the beginning of October, according to the AJC’s list of “what’s next?” action items.

Use this post to make comments and ask questions about local issues not discussed here in the past week.  Comments close Monday.

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