Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens speaks at MARTA bus unveiling ceremony honoring Civil Rights Leader Ambassador Andrew Young in Atlanta on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has some criticism for the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. This comes after the board passed a resolution opposing the extension of six tax allocation districts on July 15.
Dickens sent a four-page letter to commissioners on Thursday, calling out their lack of support for the extensions and the city’s Neighborhood Reinvestment initiative (NRI), which serves as a framework for building and providing resources, like affordable housing and transit, to various underserved communities.
“Instead, a majority of the board chose a spur-of-the-moment vote before every commissioner and Fulton County residents and taxpayers had the opportunity to fully consider how the NRI benefits them,” Dickens wrote.
Fulton Commissioner Ellis said the choice to decline was based on legal and financial grounds, citing an opinion from the Georgia Office of Legislative Counsel.
“We have an opinion …which states that an extension of a TAD is a creation of a new TAD. It requires a redevelopment plan,” Ellis said during the July commissioners meeting.
“What the city did is they voted to lock in a 30-year, up to $7 billion commitment and then promised to write the plans that state law requires as a precondition. And now we would be being asked to consent to that same inversion, surrendering up to $85 million a year without any binding, enforceable project commitments,” he added.
The letter goes on to express Dickens’s disagreement with the board’s $1.3 billion investment to improve the condition of the county jail, which was approved back in April. The jail has been under scrutiny for its violent environment for years, seeing over 30 deaths since 2021.
Part of that investment calls for a special purpose facility with more beds, as the jail has faced years of overcrowding issues. As another option, the city previously offered to sell the Atlanta City Detention Center to the county for $80 million.
The mayor withdrew the offer via his letter. And despite highlighting the county’s need for “humane detention facilities,” he claimed that the massive improvement project is not the right solution.
“Unfortunately, your $1.3 billion option is the wrong answer. It is an unnecessary heavy drain on taxpayer dollars,” Dickens wrote.
“It does nothing to break systemic inequity, create safe and stable neighborhoods, or provide opportunity for future generations – all foundational steps to reduce the incarceration rates we see today.”
Additionally, Dickens says the county’s lack of participation in the TAD extensions “reflects a governing philosophy that values paying for failure over investing in prevention.”
Now, the money generated from TADs would help fund the multi-billion-dollar NRI. They work by freezing property values, and any extra tax money from value increases goes back into developing an area instead of services like schools.
Atlanta City Council officially passed legislation accepting the NRI framework and six TAD extensions in June. They’ll supposedly sunset at the end of 2056, with the number of years spanning from six to 26 years.
But Commissioner Dana Barrett believes there should have been more discussion about using them as an NRI funding source.
“There’s a lot of nuance I think that should be happening on each TAD in terms of any potential extension. There may be some conclusion that we would come to that would help fund NRI … but that would still provide enough back to the county to help us address our issues as well,” Barret told WABE.
“That level of negotiation never happened. That level of, ‘Hey, what do you guys need to make this worth your while to keep going?’ That conversation never happened.”
For the city to move forward with its plan, at least one of its partners, Fulton County or Atlanta Public Schools, has to opt in. APS has yet to take a position on the matter, but the district’s website now includes the new sunset dates of the six TADs listed for the NRI framework.
Screenshots of the sunset dates of APS-participating tax allocation districts. The left screenshot is from April 2026, and the right is from July 2026. (DorMiya Vance/WABE)
The district’s Tax Allocation District Investment Review Committee (TAD-IRC) is “expected to make a recommendation by December after garnering feedback and information from community residents and stakeholders.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Dickens says he’s still willing to work with the county when it comes to the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative and TADs.
“The choice is yours. Fulton County still can join us, choose a path other than constructing a new $1.3 billion jail, and lean into comprehensive solutions for public safety. Real impactful change begins long before someone enters the criminal justice system,” he wrote.
