Atlanta's upcoming budget will not include a property tax rate increase or layoffs and will put a high priority on demolishing run-down properties, Mayor Kasim Reed said.
The city's budget for the 2013 fiscal year, which begins July 1, may shrink to $530 million, Reed told a crowd of several hundred at a town hall meeting at Cascade United Methodist Church Tuesday night. That would be a $20 million or 3.6 percent drop from this year's budget.
The city is also deep in negotiations to take over foreclosed homes, and is trying to build up its cash reserves to support a program to repair sidewalks and roads, Reed said.
Reed said he did not plan to push for a property tax increase in the upcoming budget, which will have to be approved by Atlanta's City Council. He did not give details on how spending would be cut, but said he did not plan to lay off employees.
Felicia Moore, who chairs the City Council's finance/executive committee, said the spending cuts were to be expected because of the local economy's slow recovery.
"We're going to try to live within our means," she said.
City Councilman H. Lamar Willis predicted sharp debates on which areas of the budget should grow and shrink. Willis said he is leaning against one proposal that had been discussed recently in City Council meetings: a cost-of-living pay increase for city employees.
"I’m not sure there’s the money to pay for that," Willis said in an interview Wednesday. "We're under the same obligation as any other organization in these times – to run as efficiently as possible."
In November, Jim Beard, the city's chief financial officer, said Atlanta was on pace for a $6 million shortfall by the end of the fiscal year at the current spending rates. But those numbers covered only three months of data -- July, August and September -- and Beard said the issue was manageable.
Reed said Tuesday that the city is trying to increase its cash reserves to $108 million. He also said he planned to push for capital projects such as sidewalk repairs, road improvements and expanded parks.
Reed also said that the city is negotiating with banks that hold large numbers of foreclosed mortgages in Atlanta in hopes of taking over the properties at a steep discount, fixing them up and putting them back on the market.
Joe Williams, a 46-year old accountant who lives in Grant Park, questioned whether that was a good use of taxpayer funds.
"When did it become city government's role to use taxpayer money to develop land?" Williams said. "Isn't that done in the private sector?"
Reed said the city is about to start an aggressive program to tear down dilapidated houses and apartment complexes. City officials have fielded numerous complaints from residents -- including several Tuesday night -- about code violations and decrepit structures that reduce the value of neighborhoods and become nests for crime.
Demolishing a house could cost up to $25,000, with a demolition project at an apartment complex costing ten times that, Reed said. "We've got to assemble a budget for Council that pays for all of them, so we don't have broken promises," Reed said.
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