Barbara Bender is up for reelection this year. She is a fine candidate with a sharp mind for civic issues. As well as having long ties to the community, she has brought several issues to the forefront in her tenure on the Council. Barbara has always been receptive to any questions I have had about her policies, and she is a very skilled and intuitive Mayor Pro Tem whenever she has had to oversee a Council meeting in the Mayor’s absence.

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This Overlay District ordinance is very important to the City since it sets out a vision for how the North Road corridor can transition from residential to office/professional uses in the coming years.

First, a TAD is not a tax increase.  It does not raise the millage rate, neither does it take any revenue away from the City’s general fund. In fact, a TAD can stop further decay of declining properties and the resulting loss of tax revenue.

Second, a TAD is a proven method of funding large, usually commercial redevelopment projects. There are other options but, in many cases, a TAD can be the best option because it essentially makes the redevelopment pay for itself.

Finally, this referendum does not create a TAD. If the referendum passes, the City will have at its disposal one more tool for financing future redevelopment projects.  If the referendum does not pass, this funding option cannot be used.

How it works

The City, either on its own or in collaboration with a developer, identifies a property in need of redevelopment… like an old shopping center where the major tenant has moved out and most stores are vacant.  The property in this example is valued at $2,000,000 for property tax purposes; the tax bill is $96,000 per year.  A plan is created to transform the vacant shopping center into a new retail center with office buildings.  The proposal will require redevelopment of the public infrastructure to serve it, such as new water and sewer pipes, and new roads. 

A Tax Allocation District (TAD) is simply the designated area of redevelopment.  The proposal goes through the normal public hearings and City Council vote.  The baseline tax value (in our example, two million dollars) is established in the year that the TAD is created. The City votes to allow TAD bonds to be sold to bring investors into the project; to generate the capital needed to build the public infrastructure without tapping into public money.

(Note: While most bonds are backed by the “full faith and credit” of the issuing government entity, the state Tax Allocation District law prohibits local governments from putting taxpayers “on the hook” in the event that the TAD redevelopment fails to materialize. The investors assume the risk.) 

The project is built.

As the redevelopment progresses, the property’s taxable value increases as well. The yearly ”tax increment”– which is the extra tax dollars collected from the TAD properties each year over the baseline value– goes to pay down the bond debt. For our example, for instance, the property’s value increases to $6,000,000 and the yearly tax revenue increases to $288,000.  The increment over the baseline ($288K minus $96K, or $192,000) is paid in that year toward the bonds that were sold to finance the project. When the bonds are retired, the local taxing authority (in our case, the city) would begin to receive 100% of the now much-higher tax revenue.

TAD financing is a “win-win” for all. Even though no money is paid directly to him, the property owner wins because his property is revitalized even though it wouldn’t originally qualify for a traditional bank loan.  The City wins because an old, vacant shopping center is now a new retail/office center with new businesses in it.  These businesses create more jobs and provide additional revenue to the City in the form of business licenses, sales taxes and property taxes.

Even better, nearby property owners are no longer impacted negatively by the higher crime, lower property values and general sense of community decline associated with the deteriorating property.

(Pictured: Atlantic Station, one of the most successful TAD projects in the southeast. The area was formerly Atlantic Steel (top), an approximately 135 acre, 90-year-old steel mill near Atlanta’s central business district.)

Polls will be open from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm on the following Tuesday, Election Day.

Said Barbara, “It is wonderful to welcome this new business to the City of Snellville.”

What is missing ?  The will of the Snellville City Council.  The Snellville City Council must affirm the positive future vision of the Town Center as approved by our citizens in the recently passed 2030 Comprehensive Plan and the Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) Study done in 2003.  Council must commit to the plan that the citizens supported and agree to work to that end.

Barbara invites you to read the full statement and join her as she works to fulfill her vision for Snellville!

Contributions are limited to two thousand four hundred dollars ($2,400.00) for a general election  and an additional one thousand two hundred dollars ($1,200.00) for a general run-off  election from any person, corporation, political committee or political party. Contributions are not tax-deductible.