After three years of struggling on its own, the Atlanta Development Authority is looking to get back on the city’s payroll -- but the climb might be a tough one.
The ADA, the economic development arm of the city, is seeking $1.9 million in taxpayer money to help fund its efforts to recruit and retain businesses.
In Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s $545 million proposed 2012 budget, he is offering $1 million to the ADA.
But at a Tuesday afternoon budget hearing before the Atlanta City Council’s Finance Committee, the council seemed inclined to shut out the authority completely.
“Do I believe that the city should be funding economic development? Absolutely,” said Council member H. Lamar Willis. “I just don’t believe we should be funding it from the general fund. If there is an option, like the hotel-motel tax, I could support that. As we are already not able to fund city services at the level our citizens expect, I am uncomfortable with this when we are cutting departments across the board.”
A day after the budget became public, departments started making their cases. The committee also heard from the Citizens Review Board and the Ethics Board on Tuesday.
For the Citizens Review Board, Reed is proposing $351,000 for 2012, down from the current $370,000 the board gets. Christina Beamud, its executive director, is asking for $364,712.
As for the Ethics Board, Reed is offering $327,600, which is $19,000 less than what the board gets now. Virginia Looney, who runs the ethics board, made two proposals, including one for $347,000. She said that would keep her department -- one of the smallest in the city -- “at status quo.”
The mayor’s proposed cuts in those two departments also reflect 3 percent pay cuts for Beamud and Looney. Up to 300 city employees who make more than $80,000 annually are facing pay cuts in the current proposal.
Although the city is still weeks away from the July 1 deadline to ratify a budget and nothing was decided Tuesday, the theme was to be conservative in spending.
Up until three years ago, the city funded the ADA. But as the city looked to trim its budget, the ADA fell by the wayside and was funded primarily by the authority's TAD and housing units, as well as loans.
“The question might be ‘If you have been able to do this with no money from the city, why do you need money now?’" said ADA President Ernestine Garey. “We borrowed money, so we owe banks. We borrowed money from the Urban Residential Financial Authority. It is time to start paying back on those loans.”
Which is why Garey, who has been serving as ADA’s interim president for about a year, is looking for even more than the mayor is offering. She told the council that even if it approves her department at a level of $1 million, the council also should consider filling in the gap with some of the car rental tax as a source of funding.
Garey added that the ADA would be back next year looking for funds.
On Wednesday, the departments of police, fire and corrections will present their budgets to the panel.
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