The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Inside City Hall
CAN ATLANTA SHOW VOTERS IT KNOWS HOW TO SPEND AN EXTRA $750 MILLION?
Early voting starts today for the statewide primaries in this year’s midterm elections. And in addition to the Democratic and Republican races on the ballot, Atlanta residents will have the choice to vote for or against what officials have said would be the biggest infrastructure investment in the city’s history.
Three different ballot questions will ask voters if they want to approve the continuation of the T-SPLOST sales tax (an additional 4 cents on a $10 purchase) that would raise $350 million, and a separate $400 million revenue bond.
The money would fund improvements to public safety facilities, parks and recreation spaces and transportation infrastructure.
You can see a full project list on the city’s website.
Some residents and transportation advocates, though, have concerns. That’s because the city struggled with the rollout of the first T-SPLOST program, which was approved by voters in 2016. The total cost of the work ended up exceeding the budget, and projects were delayed for years.
Officials within the mayor’s office are hoping the new measures pass. A group called Moving Atlanta Forward sent out mailers to residents last week urging them to vote yes on the ballot questions, saying the money would support “badly needed improvements to Atlanta infrastructure.”
It’s part of a push to show residents in the next few weeks that the new administration at City Hall can be trusted to properly spend an additional $750 million in tax dollars.
Asked during an Atlanta Journal-constitution editorial board meeting last month how he hopes to do that, Mayor Andre Dickens acknowledged the city needs to get better at implementing transportation projects for which residents have spent years waiting.
The mayor stressed that when he helped put the project list together as a councilman last year, they made conservative estimates and adjusted for future inflation so they wouldn’t overbudget. He’s also promised to overhaul the city’s procurement process.
Now your City Hall insiders have learned legislation was set to be introduced during Monday’s City Council meeting aimed at providing more accountability in the rollout of the new spending, if passed by voters. The ordinance as drafted would institute yearly financial audits, require quarterly updates from officials, make the project list binding and create an oversight committee.
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Get excited, local government junkies! The formal city budget process starts this week at City Hall, with the Dickens administration expected to release its proposed budget to the City Council.
Later this week, starting Thursday, various city departments and unions are set to present to council members their priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts July 1.
Residents can chime in throughout the budget process, too: Public hearings are scheduled for June 7 and 15. We’ll keep you posted in the coming weeks with important updates about this budget cycle and how they could impact Atlantans.
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A pair of city audits released last week scrutinized operations at City Hall. One took a deep dive into the city’s maintenance of its streetlights; the other looked at the city’s protocols for direct payments.
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We told you last week about the proposal to start a recurring “Streets Alive” program on Peachtree Street that would shut the road down to cars one Sunday a month starting next year.
The proposal went before the transportation committee on Wednesday, with stakeholders on both sides of the issue giving their thoughts during the public comment period.
Notably, the president and CEO of the Fox Theatre, Allan Vella, said the Fox is against the idea. He worries it would hurt theater attendance on Sundays — a popular day for shows — and impede patrons’ ability to get to the Fox if they can’t drive on Peachtree.
He suggested making the event quarterly instead of monthly.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Downtown Neighborhood Association, the residents’ organization for downtown, is in “total support” of the proposal, the group’s president told us.