Economic Development

Redevelopment Referendum

Unfortunately, the City of Dunwoody voted for the Redevelopment Referendum on November 8th 2011. This gives the city the power to authorize Tax Authorizing Districts (TADs). Now we have to pay careful attention to what the City Council does moving forward. Dunwoody has no blighted areas that the free market system couldn’t resolve. Dunwoody does have Master Plans that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The city will attempt to use TADs to implement these wasteful Master Plans.

The apartments that were saved by the defeat of the Park Bonds are not a blighted property. A proper rental applications process can keep felons and poor credit risks from renting there and other management actions can resolve whatever problems exist there.

PCID Transit Village

PCID however, has 5700 more apartments planned for their transit village. They should be left to make their own mistakes and not expect the city to subsidize their plans. Their transit village is built around MARTA, a failed business that spends $750 million a year, but only has $120 million in ridership revenue. The other $630 million comes from tax subsidies. PCID’s major renters are retail and they will continue to struggle in this long recession. Like the Park Bonds, if the TSPLOST fails, PCID will need to slow its expansion to match its actual revenue projections..

Property Rights Violations

When government uses the term economic development, it is referring to government intervention designed to raise the property tax on whatever they are trying to “fix”. City and county governments have been dealing with “blighted” properties for decades. At first, they resorted to condemning the property and forcing the property owner to do something with it. If it’s a downtown property, owners would pay to have the building demolished and would put in a parking lot until a buyer came along. If the property is too far from downtown office buildings, and the price was low, government might buy it and turn it into a park (a bad move). When government wants to establish a Tax Authorizing District (TAD), it authorized the TAD group to operate as an unelected government entity, with the right to issue Bonds. Like everything else government gets interested in, it will become so expensive, nobody will show up to rent the properties.

Whenever a business “partners” with government, the bail-out will be borne by the taxpayer. TADs are used by cities to attempt to increase city property taxes, usually on commercial properties. We’ve seen news stories over the years, telling about business owners, forced from their businesses by government authorized TADs, claiming Eminent Domain rights over their private property. That’s what TADs do and most of these crimes go unreported.

Free Market System

The only real economic development exists in the free market system; that is, individual owners investing their own money to build a business. If the business fails, the taxpayer isn’t on the hook to bail them out.

The most cost-effective approach to building a family business that can be passed to each generation is for the family to first purchase the land the business will occupy. Once the land and building costs are paid off, the property can operate rent-free. That gives that business a chance to become multi-generational. That’s why Republicans fight for a tax code with no “death tax”. Family farms are the prototype of the family business and when the owner dies, these farms often need to be sold to pay the estate taxes. Government has used tax policy and Eminent Domain abuse for decades to destroy family businesses to favor large corporate ownership.

Replace Elected Officials

Government should abolish the death tax and be forced to pay double the appraised value of any private property it seeks to seize. Instead, government continues to fail to do a good job with their core responsibilities. City governments involved with TADs unnecessarily put voters at risk of financial obligations and inflate prices and taxes. It is similar to public school districts building multi-million dollar school buildings, but failing to teach students basic math, reading and writing. When government authorizes a TAD to do their dirty work, they are still accountable to the voters. The same goes for a State that authorizes a Regional entity. Every State Rep who voted for the legislation and the governor who signed it and the representatives who didn’t repeal it are accountable to the voters. If the HOT lanes aren’t working out so well, the blame goes to the State Reps and the Governor. They should all be replaced in the next elections. The TSPLOST we will vote on in July 2012 has wasteful, unhelpful projects that cost too much. The blame goes to the Governor and the State Reps and Senators who voted for the creation of the Regional Commissions and the County Commissioners and City Council Reps who participated.. Those elected officials who approved and worked on the Regional Commissions should all be replaced in the next election.

The Regional entities have been authorized in nearly every state. These are unelected commissions and are not accountable to the voters for their actions or failures. The establishment of Regional entities is required by U.S. Agenda 21 to undermine city, county and state sovereignty. These commissions need to be abolished.

Private / Public Partnerships are also part of this scheme and those elected officials who allow them should be driven from office. These “partnerships” create boondoggles like Atlanta’s Toll Lanes. The HOT lanes should be dismantled and their contracts cancelled.

Cities, counties and states are being bribed with grants from every federal agency to implement UN Agenda 21. The fact that cities have grant money implicates them in this scheme. The money for these grants is being printed as we speak and will result in inflation and higher unemployment going forward. Local government gains nothing from these grants. It would be cheaper if local taxes went to fix local roads and sewers. Somehow the grants require that the local governments spend four times more than simple resurfacing would cost. These local elected officials should be fired.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader