UPDATE 1: Title and article updated with new total numbers (see below for full editorial comment). (APN) ATLANTA — The Atlanta Board of Education has conceded to recouping tens of millions dollars less than the original 162 million dollars promised to the Atlanta Public School system (APS) for its participation in the Beltline Tax Allocation District (TAD). In […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — While there is no end in sight to the Beltline-Atlanta Public Schools (APS) dispute, the Atlanta City Council has set aside four million dollars for a possible eventual settlement. The Council could have made an outright good faith payment, but decided to put it in a contingency fund, pending a settlement agreement. The problem is, […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — At the Wednesday, May 13, 2015 Board Meeting of the Atlanta Beltline, the Board passed the Fiscal Year 2016 budget for the Beltline that does not provide any payments towards the Beltline’s 13.5 million dollar debt to Atlanta Public Schools (APS). This debt reflects two missed payments in January 2014 and January 2015. Based on the […]
Read moreBy Anna Simonton, Special to The Atlanta Progressive News (APN) ATLANTA — Shawn Deangelo Walton left a meeting with BeltLine officials on Tuesday, July 29, 2014, with little recourse other than to comply with their demands. The urban gardener and founder of WeCycle will uproot from Ashview Community Garden, taking his youth program to a nearby church by the end […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — An effort to “request and encourage” the Mayor of Atlanta and Atlanta Public Schools (APS) former Interim Superintendent Errol Davis to reach an amicable settlement for the over 20 million dollars owed to APS generated by the Beltline Tax Allocation District (TAD) is moving forward, Atlanta Progressive News has learned. According to APS Board of […]
Read moreBy Meghan Simons, Special to The Atlanta Progressive News (APN) ATLANTA — Two recommendations–one for a suspension of three months and one for a suspension of six months–have been issued in the disciplinary proceedings against prominent Atlanta attorney John Woodham, for his improper actions while intervening in a bond case, as the case continues to near a resolution. […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — In what is likely to be another near-giveaway of taxpayer-owned property to developers, with no conditions attached, the City Council of Atlanta is set to vote on ordinance 14-O-1191, presented by Councilman Kwanza Hall (District 2), that will allow the Atlanta Development Authority (ADA, nicknamed Invest Atlanta) to preside over the future of the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Robert Welsh, a candidate for City Council of Atlanta District 1, criticized incumbent Carla Smith in an interview with Atlanta Progressive News, over the timing of Smith’s introduction of two pieces of legislation changing the zoning and land use designations for 800 and 860 Glenwood Avenue SE. There, developer Jeff Fuqua has proposed a redevelopment […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The Georgia State University Library has acquired a box of personal papers from the News Editor and Founder of Atlanta Progressive News–the present writer–covering eight years of progressive history in Atlanta. The papers are for a special collection called the Social Change Collection held by the library’s Special Collections Department. The papers include: – Numerous […]
Read moreIssues for 2013 1. Education Georgia public schools have a high school graduation rate of 67.5%, the third worst in the nation. Yet the cost per public school student, $10,587, is nearly $1,000 more than the national average. Charter schools can offer parents and children an alternative to a poorly performing traditional public school. Last summer, Georgians voted to […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Two companion cases related to the Atlanta Beltline and Atlanta Perry-Bolton Tax Allocation Districts (TADs) are headed to the Supreme Court of Georgia, where the TADs and the Atlanta Beltline are no new topic, Atlanta Progressive News has learned. The first case, John Sherman and Christopher Eichler v. City of Atlanta et al., concerns the bond validation […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Fulton County and Atlanta Public Schools are concerned about the recent performance audit by Leslie Ward, City of Atlanta auditor, regarding the ten City of Atlanta Tax Allocation Districts (TADs). TADs are systems where governments agree to divert from their General Funds the property tax revenues above a certain base amount collected from certain neighborhoods. For the […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The T-SPLOST–a one penny sales tax measure intended to fund transportation projects in the Metro Atlanta area–will be on Metro Atlanta ballots on July 31, 2012. One controversial project that would be funded through the T-SPLOST is the Atlanta Beltline. This article will explain how the appearance of the Beltline on the T-SPLOST project list means that […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Several North Fulton officials are opposed to the inclusion of 601 million dollars of funding for the Atlanta Beltline in the draft list passed by the Executive Committee for the upcoming penny transportation sales tax vote in July 2012. Under the draft list, the Beltline would receive roughtly ten percent of the total funding from the […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has submitted to the planning director of the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) a “wish list” of transportation projects for the Metro Atlanta region. This is a critical step in a process that could lead to a regional penny sales tax to fund transportation. As previously reported by Atlanta Progressive News, in […]
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