Facing a $1 billion backlog in infrastructure needs, Mayor Kasim Reed plans to ask voters to approve a bond referendum in coming years worth $150 million to $250 million, he announced Friday.
Speaking after his quarterly meeting with the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a board of executives who work with the mayor on major initiatives, Reed said his administration is working to package a bond deal that would chip away at the city’s aging infrastructure problems, such as repairs of its roads and bridges, without having to raise property taxes. Tackling those issues will be a top priority for his second term, he said.
“I’ll spend the next 12 months moving the city from surviving to financial health,” he said, adding his administration is working with ACP leaders to identify “efficiencies” to free up cash with the “least amount of pain.”
The goal is to use those savings to make payments on the bonds, he said.
If his administration can find ways to streamline operations and save cash — and not raise taxes — Reed hopes the public will be more likely to support a bond referendum in 2015.
“I want to focus on the look and feel of the city of Atlanta in a very personal and intimate way,” he said. “And I feel confident for the first time we’re in a financial position to do that.”
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