Now… any thoughts on the facts cited?…

Good suggestion. This is the first topic I’ve blogged on heavily that I was paid for, and it came up in an earlier thread so it was “asked and answered” in my mind. Ultimately, I really don’t consider it that important overall because an argument is either good or bad, regardless of who or why it is being posted, but since it is important to others will follow your wise suggestion.

Clint

I put a disclaimer on my posts about the presidential and Senate races just so it’s out there every time.

I’ve been transparent about my role, which has been both directly and indirectly in support of TADs. I suspect that’s why you know about it. Supported TAD’s long before I was retained to help with them.

People who are paid get on here often to support the folks they are working with (me, Rountree, others). Lots of those folks are doing it under pseudonyms, which is fine – but certainly not transparent.

As long as I’m using my name and everyone knows where I stand, why not consider my argument on the facts instead of trying to get it taken away?

The call is others to make, but I hope we err on the side of free speech here and just consider arguments on their merits or lack thereof…

Clint

It really, REALLY is a bad idea for consultants who are working for pay on a project to use Peach Pundit front page posting privledges to promote their clients.

This is really a BAD idea that should be prohibited, as it will pervert the open transparency of PP.

In fact, I thought this already WAS prohibited on PP.

Two things:

1. The biggest part of the property digest is the school tax digest.

2. The talking point “developers are getting school funds” is so simplistic it is basically false. TAD’s do not give one cent of existing school money to developers – period. TAD’s only use NEW tax money created ABOVE AND BEYOND the existing tax revenue.

In other words, TAD’s are a gift horse. They haul in a sack of new tax revenue and eat from that sack and not from existing feed. When they get done eating, they leave behind the extra sack of feed for the schools to have forever.

This allows me to get to the punchline: beating up on TAD’s for “taking school money” is looking a gift horse in the mouth. TAD’s actually add money to schools, and they never take away from them.

School funds are for the schools not for development let’s keep it that way.

A school system is not obligated to participate in a Tax Allocation District at all; it can opt out. Because they have that option, and because the school tax is usually a majority percentage of the total tax bill, the schools are in a great position to negotiate the extent of their support. And many school systems have become very savvy at maximizing the immediate benefit of a TAD.

Cherokee County schools had all development fees waived as part of their agreement to participate in the Holly Springs New Town Center TAD.

In return for Atlanta Public Schools’ support of the Westside TAD, the system received $5 million to build Centennial Elementary on the site of the old Techwood Homes, plus an additional $2 million for other capital costs.

For the Beltline TAD, APS had negotiated for $10 million for recreational facilities and ballfields within the TAD; subsidized or free transit rides for APS students; a trust fund for educators and staff; and $150 million for educational programming, paid at $7.5 million per year from years six to 25 of the life of the TAD.

It is ironic that it was a successful challenge of the use of education tax revenue for the Beltline TAD that derailed almost all TADs statewide and precipitated the need for Amendment #2. If you want to talk about a school system losing money, here it is! The APS stands to lose tens of millions if Amendment #2 is not approved on November 4.

I assuming that a TAD has not been made illegal in GA.

And not all lawyers are activists – for example, Doug Chalmers!

Clint…aren’t ALL lawyers an “activist” of some sort? Whether to get a client off, sue for damages, defend from damages, etc…all lawyers are activists.
Please…if you’re trying to convince me of something in a logical fashion, DON’T use what you think are code words.