Atlanta schools could miss out on more than $30 million in local property tax revenue under two proposals from area legislators.
The potential loss of funding would be catastrophic to a school district in the midst of an ambitious — and expensive — effort to turn itself around, school superintendent Meria Carstarphen said.
“If both of those things happen, we might as well go home,” she said of the proposals. “You can’t absorb that kind of consistent shock and pull in a school system.”
Rep. Beth Beskin, R-Atlanta, last year introduced House Bill 633, which would have exempted many older residents from paying taxes to Atlanta schools. District officials estimated the potential loss of revenue from that bill at $23 million. But that effort failed late in the 2015 session.
Beskin said Thursday she is working on a new version and is negotiating a compromise with APS, but declined further comment.
Rep. Tom Taylor, R-Dunwoody, plans to introduce a bill that would re-institute a property tax limit of 20 mills on school districts statewide. A handful of districts including DeKalb County and Atlanta exceed that rate now.
Taylor’s bill targets DeKalb, but cutting the millage rate could cost Atlanta schools about $36 million, district officials said.
Taylor said DeKalb was given an exemption to the millage cap because the district operated a junior college. But the Board of Regents took over DeKalb Junior College in the 1970s, Taylor said, and the millage rate never changed.
“This was never intended to be the general millage rate,” Taylor said.
The potential losses come as the Atlanta school board plans for hundreds of millions in new spending in the coming years. Next year, that could include $25 million to improve low-performing schools by doing things including hiring outside management groups; $13 million for staff raises; and $12 million to develop coordinated academic programs for schools in each neighborhood, according to preliminary budget documents.
But, Taylor said, DeKalb and Atlanta have been allowed to charge higher tax rates for years and “it’s not been a stellar outcome.”
Atlanta spends more per student than nearly all other districts in the state. “How’s that working out?” Taylor said.
The same is true for DeKalb, he said, where administrative spending is outpacing spending on students while graduation rates lag.
Atlanta already has an exemption for homeowners 65 and older who earn $25,000 or less annually. Beskin's previous proposal would broaden the exemption to all over 70. It was introduced last year and received bipartisan support in Atlanta's local delegation, but failed in the House.
If a similar bill passes this year, the Atlanta school board could raise taxes, board chairman Courtney English said. The district last changed its tax rate in 2009.
“On any of these bills, I’m just asking people, don’t.” Carstarphen said.
“Put a bubble over this. Stop taking any more money from Atlanta Public Schools,” she said. “I cannot turn it around if every time I look left or right there’s a big distraction or another barrier or another ginormous drain from the district.”
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