A contract dispute between Atlanta city government and Atlanta Public Schools (APS) is getting heated and threatens to slow the progress of the Atlanta BeltLine, according to a report from WABE.
In 2005, the city and APS entered into a contract laying out how the Beltline would be funded. APS agreed to give up some of its property tax dollars. To help offset that, the city promised to make fixed annual payments to APS based on the assumption that real estate prices would rise. The city, which now owes APS around $19 million, has yet to make the first payment.
At a recent BeltLine board meeting, Mayor Kasim Reed had strong words for outgoing APS chief Erroll Davis, who wasn’t in attendance. “Nobody is going to negotiate at the end of a gun so if you’re going to take hostages you better be prepared to shoot the hostages,” said Reed.
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Another article states that the first payment was made to APS in 2013. Can we get some clarification one way or the other?
As we understand, no payment has been received by APS. We will be following up on this story.
Well, regardless of if or when any payment was made, they might not be necessary if APS hadn’t paid out all those bogus bonuses during the cheating scandal, not to mention the legal fees for the whole thing.
While I wholeheartedly support the Beltline project, gambling on the real estate market in this economy may not have been the best decision…