The city of Atlanta has missed another payment to Atlanta Public Schools in connection with the Beltline project, according to school district officials.
Under the agreement that helped fund the popular greenspace project, the school district was due to be paid $6.75 million Thursday and another $6.75 million last January. To date, neither payment has been received, according to school district officials.
“I’m still hoping that we’re able to resolve this dispute via conversations with the leadership on the city side. Ideally I’d like that to happen sooner rather than later,” school board chairman Courtney English said.
In response to questions about the missed payment and ongoing negotiations, Mayor Kasim Reed spokeswoman Anne Torres referred to a meeting about the Beltline payments last month between the mayor and a group of Atlanta parents, the Neighborhood Collaborative Group.
“The Mayor had a productive meeting with the leaders of the Neighborhood Collaborative Group, and we look forward to continuing those conversations with the group and leadership at APS,” Torres wrote in an email.
School and city leaders have been at odds since early 2013 over the agreement that created the Beltline tax allocation district, or TAD, which helps fund the project. Though the Beltline is operated by the nonprofit Atlanta Beltline Inc., the city manages the Beltline TAD. Under the agreement, the city was to make $162 million in fixed payments from the Beltline TAD to the school district through 2030 in exchange for using a portion of property tax revenue for Beltline development.
City and Beltline leaders have said the recession devastated the Beltline’s funding model and it now can’t make the payments without effectively halting the project’s development. In their view, the sooner the Beltline’s 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit comes to life, the better it is for communities and schools.
School leaders say the district, which relied heavily on savings to fund its current budget, needs the money for district operations and school board priorities. In letters between the city and the school district in October, school leaders disputed that paying the district would cripple the Beltline’s development plans.
The exact amount the city owes is in dispute, but in recent months the school district has increased pressure on the city to pay up.
The talks seemed at a standstill for much of the year as Reed and former APS Superintendent Erroll Davis, who is advising the board on the issue, warred over negotiations.
Under Davis’ leadership, the school board took the first steps toward a potential lawsuit this year, and the district later hired outside counsel and a lobbyist to deal with the issue.
English, the school board chairman, declined to comment on negotiations with the city.
“Parents, constituents, people across the city want people to work together in a collaborative fashion and I hope we will be able to do that,” he said.
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