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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This week’s Free-For-All Friday is brought to you by: Kick in the Fit, offering a free month of boot camp (morning or evening) to one Decatur Metro reader.  www.kickinthefit.com

To enter, just send an email with the subject line “Decatur Metro Giveaway” to [email protected]   Make sure to include your name and address in the email.  Kick in the Fit will pick the winner at random on Monday morning.  The lucky reader will be announced in the Free-For-All Friday comment section that same day.

Ms. Lauren Lee writes in…

We just met the two people that plan to open up a “New Orleans style snow ball cafe” where Cafe Cliche used to be. They said they hope to have a soft launch by June 17, and a grand opening in July.

Yum…shaved ice…

Here in ol’ Decatur, the secret formula has long been out about how to reconstruct life on city streets.  But in other parts of the world (i.e. Texas) it still takes a bit more visible proof to convince the old-skool powers-that-be that a few small tweaks can transform a street.

Check out how this group in Oak Cliff, TX – outside of Dallas – revived a whole darn block with just $1,000, prompting the city government to invest $130,000 to make their temporary oasis a permanent reality.

For more info on how they made it happen, CLICK HERE.

The AJC reports…

Former DeKalb County schools superintendent Crawford Lewis and three others, including former chief operating officer Patricia Reid, have been indicted on charges they ran a criminal enterprise that sent millions of dollars to Reid’s then-husband and others.

In exchange for steering school construction work to Reid’s former husband and other vendors, the school officials and Reid’s secretary received cash, sports tickets or other perks, DeKalb District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming announced Wednesday.

More HERE.  And even more on Atlanta Unfiltered.