Rep. Johnson endorses Reed for mayor

By Eric Stirgus

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta mayoral candidate Kasim Reed received a new endorsement Monday and used the opportunity to begin the latest round of debate with campaign rivals Lisa Borders and Mary Norwood over who has the best plan to fight crime.

"Now is the time to put your money where your mouth is," Reed said told reporters, flanked by U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, (D-Ga.), who endorsed the candidate.

Reed has said he'll hire 750 police officers in his first term. Borders and Norwood have said they'd like to hire about 170 officers in their first term.

Borders spokeswoman Liz Flowers pushed Reed to offer a detailed plan on how he'll hire that many officers. Flowers said Borders, the City Council president, plans to pay for more police by doing a better job of collecting fines and fees, taking over the collection of sales taxes from the Georgia Department of Revenue and through cuts in non-essential spending. Borders believes she can raise about $50 million a year through such initiatives.

Reed says he'll use funds collected from this year's property tax increase, which should total at least $55 million, to pay for more officers. He says the city can collect an additional $20-25 million a year in fines and fees.

Reed criticized Norwood, a two-term councilwoman, for her recent commercial in which she stood at several crime scenes and said budgeting errors were responsible for furloughs on police officers and firefighters. He argued Norwood and the council bear some responsibility for the furloughs because it voted against raising taxes last year. Mayor Shirley Franklin ordered furloughs late last year to cut spending.

"No alternative (to raising taxes) was offered," Reed said of Norwood.

Norwood says she'll pay for more police through sound accounting.

"(Norwood's) television ad clearly makes the point that our city's inability to to manage the public's money in a responsible manner led to police furloughs," campaign manager Roman Levit said in a statement.

Johnson, a DeKalb County Democrat, said he endorsed Reed, in part, because of his stance on crime. Johnson said Reed, a former state lawmaker who was an early supporter of President Barack Obama, can bridge the gap between Atlanta and state and federal leaders.

"We've got to stop the negativity toward Atlanta and Kasim Reed is the best person to do that," said Johnson.

Reed said he'll seek Johnson's advice on issues, such as trying to get Atlanta in the Social Security system to reduce city spending on its pension plans.