Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The Gulch development cleared another hurdle today. The Atlanta School Board unanimously approved the intergovernmental agreement drafted last week the city of Atlanta as well as a resolution related to the Westside Tax Allocation District (TAD).

This agreement will be the most comprehensive reform of tax allocation districts in Atlanta Public Schools (APS) decades-long history of being involved with them, according APS materials. Once the agreement is ratified and accepted by both the city and APS, the intervention against the bond validation leveled by APS will be withdrawn from the courts.

“I want to thank members of the Atlanta Board of Education for their unanimous vote in passing today’s IGA and resolution with the City of Atlanta, providing APS with a more predictable, manageable and sustainable way of contributing to and supporting economic development in the City, while balancing the interests of our 52,000 students, 6,000 employees and 158,000 taxpayers,” APS Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said in a statement.  “In addition, this agreement caps our financial contributions in future TADs and sparks economic development in four TADs on the Southside, where so many of our students and employees live.”

Specially, the intergovernmental agreement reduces APS’s commitment from $1.56 billion to $1.38 billion and distributes the load more evenly over the lives of the TADs, according to APS materials. Additionally, it reduces the tax digest of APS to no more than 10 percent of collectable digest in any one year and reduces pressures on the APS budget. It’s estimated the agreement represents a net gain of $130 to $180 million for APS over the life of the TADs.