Request to enable special tax districts goes before Augusta committee (Atlanta: appointed, real estate)

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Deputy Administrator Ted Rhinehart placed a request for legislation enabling Community Improvement Districts, or CIDs, on the agenda for Tuesday’s Finance Committee to consider. The agenda item states that CIDs were discussed at recent meetings held across Augusta-Richmond County as a development tool used by many Georgia counties.

There are 25 active CIDs in Georgia, most in metro Atlanta, according to a 2016 report by the Andrew Young School at Georgia State University’s Center for State and Local Finance. The CIDs have an appointed board and their primary funding mechanism is an ad valorem tax that averaged 4.7 mills in 2014, the report said.

Once the enabling legislation is created, the CID requires approval by a majority of commercial property owners within its boundaries and by the owners of 75 percent of the properties’ value, it stated. CIDs are a type of Business Improvement District or BID, with which downtown Augusta has previous experience.

For five years the downtown Augusta BID levied between 6 and 6.89 mills on property owners to fund the Clean Augusta Downtown Initiative, or CADI. Administered by the Downtown Development Authority, the CADI “Clean and Green Team” rode Segways around downtown and performed some maintenance, but eventually lost support from many property owners and the BID wasn’t renewed by the Augusta Commission.

Augusta commissioners who responded to requests for comment said they were unfamiliar with requests to create a CID. Commissioner Ben Hasan has requested a discussion of the Downtown Development Authority at the commission’s 11 a.m. standing called meeting, which is typically closed to discuss personnel, real estate acquisition or litigation.

Request to enable special tax districts goes before Augusta committee | The Augusta Chronicle