Comments on: Decatur’s 2012 Citizen Survey: Residents Split on Stronger Tree Ordinance, Support Using Tax Funds for Beacon Hill

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 18:49:12 +0000

SPLOST funds can legally be used for capital purposes and are not restricted to to instructional facilities.
I thing the Supt’s figure is for the school district’s portion of the project; the total project is much more than that.
SPLOST funds are for the school district’s use only; the police department or any other agency of government cannot use them.

By: Can We Talk?

Can We Talk? — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 17:44:18 +0000

The custom question regarding Beacon Hill is detailed below:
Custom Question 3
Please indicate the extent you would support or oppose financing that would use tax
funds for the renovation of the old Beacon School complex, including construction of a
Percent of new Decatur Police Department headquarters on West Trinity Place.
Strongly support 26%
Somewhat support 51%
Somewhat oppose 14%
Strongly oppose 8%
Total 100%

Decatur Metro published the CSD Supt’s reccs. previously, that if I recall correctly, offered two alternatives for the admin office part of this renovation or relocation costing between $4-5million.
I don’t recall it including the cost of the Police Dept. HQ.

I would be curious to know if the Supt. estimate was to include the Police as well, or if that is an additional amount.( Can the Police even use SPLOST?–I have no idea)

Also, too bad the custom question did not discuss the $4-5million cost. I wonder if attaching the pretty high cost estimate would have brought some responses back to earth.
I also did not find the number of respondents used for the survey. That would have been nice to know as well.

This is an issue that will need some pretty strict vetting before going forward.
We need Westchester as a school again, we shouldn’t have to pay a fortune to get it there.
The dollars are very significant and should be tied to a long term plan CSD should develop or be required to have in place that will offer some long term stability for the admin offices.
I do not think most citizens think its OK to move them every 8 -10 years at multi million dollar expense and to resort to SPLOST for new construction only.
(the move into Westchester cost a bundle as well.)
Isn’t admin on the operating budget after all? Shouldn’t capital expenses like SPLOST be reserved for instruction and teaching facilities?

Let the discussion begin

By: Judd

Judd — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 17:27:59 +0000

I recall some questions being raised here about the meaning of the survey question regarding Beacon Hill, but I never followed up regarding whether they were answered. The survey question: “Please indicate the extent you would support or oppose financing that would use tax
funds for the renovation of the old Beacon School complex, including construction of a
new Decatur Police Department headquarters on West Trinity Place.”

Were we being asked about reallocating tax funds? If so, reallocating away from what? What would be defunded? Or were we being asked whether we would support a tax increase? If so, how much of a tax increase? (I assume it would require a 3rd bond either way, but I don’t know.) I wonder how respondents interpreted the question.