Wednesday, March 13, 2002
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Wednesday, March 13, 2002 |
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Mayor's tax proposal was wrong solution for PTC's west side problems The current controversial issues on Mayor Steve Brown's agenda in Peachtree City are the LCI and CID. For those of us unfamiliar with the abbreviations, they are Living Centers Initiative and Community Improvement District. The Living Centers Initiative is a program where the rest of metro Atlanta is trying to emulate Peachtree City. It promotes things like alternative transportation, (golf carts) and neighborhood shopping centers. If this sounds familiar, it should. The Community Improvement District is a program that allows funding to improve a commercial section of the city through a self-imposed property tax increase. It can be compared to urban renewal. Property owners in an older or decaying section of a community vote to increase their own taxes. These funds are then used to improve their part of town. From a business standpoint the idea is to end up with a better neighborhood, thereby increasing your property's value more than the amount you paid in extra taxes. This funding method must be approved by the state legislature. Once passed it must be voted on by the property owners involved. This is the program that the mayor was pushing for the Ga. Highway 54 West corridor including The Avenue shopping area, Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Imagine if you were the owner of one of these properties and the mayor suggested you increase your own taxes. Beyond the insult is the absurdity and complete lack of business acumen. The mayor suggested in his State of the City speech that the failure of the CID was the combined fault of state Representative Kathy Cox and Councilwoman Annie McMenamin. If so, then I say, "Thank You, ladies." Thank you both for having the sense to check with the owners of the properties and doing your homework. Thank you both for stopping a tax that would be passed from property owner to business owner to us, the consumers. Thank you both for avoiding the embarrassment had the Legislature approved this program and then the property owners involved subsequently opposed it. A CID is a program that is intended to restore life to a dead or dying area. It is the wrong program for a thriving commercial area in a highly desirable community. Its failure, if it should be called that, lies at the feet of the man who failed to do his homework. Gary Rower Peachtree City [Rower ran against Brown in last fall's election.]
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