Atlanta City Council ends year without tax extension vote

Atlanta City Council members pressed pause on a vote over Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens controversial proposal to extend all of the city’s eight tax allocation districts for 30 years. The proposal could raise more than $5 billion, money the mayor would like to use in revitalizing underserved neighborhoods.

Officials in the mayor’s office had been quietly lobbying council members to pass the legislation before the start of the new year, when the body will have at least three new members. Approvals are also needed by the Fulton County Commission and the Atlanta school board to generate all of the anticipated revenue.

But after public pushback, the mayor’s chief of staff, Courtney English, made a surprise appearance at a City Council committee meeting last week and conceded the legislation will have to wait.

“In the spirit of collaboration, in the spirit of transparency, in the spirit of getting this right, we’re going to wait until next year,” he said.

Extending the city’s TADs has become the hallmark policy initiative of Dickens’ second term, which begins in January. But the proposal has been criticized by some policy experts, particularly because it would take revenue from Fulton County and Atlanta Public Schools. It is unclear if either body will support the measure.

Oversight of the revenue would be transferred to Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm largely controlled by the mayor’s office, to dole out across development projects limited to specific areas of the city.

The decision to push for a vote on the extension put one of City Council’s upcoming new members’ organizing power on full display. Council member-elect Kelsea Bond rallied a coalition of critics to City Hall last week to speak against the plan, which will go through an oversight commission process starting in January.

“The administration was trying to ram this vote through City Council before the council closes for winter break and the new City Council is sworn-in in January,” Bond said after the legislation was put on hold.

“I consider this a win for democracy here in Atlanta. This is a win for grassroots mobilizing and organizing.”

Bond, who acknowledged the vote won’t be on hold for long, will be the council’s first democratic socialist and promised on the campaign trail to bring more community voices to City Hall to help sway legislative decision-making.

Howard Shook, an Atlanta City Council member for 24 years, is retiring. (Natrice Miller/AJC)

Longest-serving council member bids City Hall farewell

Atlanta City Council is suffering a loss with the retirement of longtime councilman and finance guru Howard Shook.

Shook was reelected to serve north Atlanta residents in Buckhead’s District 7 seat six times, serving a total of 24 years.

In that time, Shook became a prominent voice in managing the city’s finances, a level head during some of the most contentious meetings and a mentor to his young colleagues as they navigated City Hall.

Dickens and current council members, alongside dozens of former city leaders, praised Shook during the last meeting of the year Monday for his unwavering service to his district and the city, saying that many residents will never know the true impact he had on Atlanta.

“The disasters you prevent from happening, fixing the ones that do — you are a stabilizing, secure and unifying force in so many ways seen and not,” council member Matt Westmoreland said. “You foster community among the 16 of us who are here now and a quarter century worth of folks who came before.”

Shook is able to boast that during his last term on City Council, Atlanta was awarded a AAA credit rating — the highest credit score in the city’s history, after helping shepherd the city through bleak financial positions during the Great Recession in 2008 and the 2020 pandemic.