Sherman v. Atlanta Indep. Sch. Sys.

The 2008 Amendment to the Georgia Constitution rendered constitutional the Atlanta Independent School System, City of Atlanta and Atlanta Development Authority's reliance on school taxes to help fund the City of Atlanta's Perry-Bolton and Belt-Line tax allocation districts.

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This case involves the use of local school taxes for general redevelopment purposes following our decision in February 2008 interpreting the Georgia Constitution’s Educational Purpose Clause in Woodham v. City of Atlanta, 283 Ga. 95 657 SE2d 528 2008; the subsequent amendment to the Constitution’s Redevelopment Powers Clause in November 2008; and the repeal and reenactment of the statutory Redevelopment Powers Law in April 2009. Appellant John S. Sherman argues that our holding in Woodham, where we concluded that the proposed use of school taxes to fund bonds for the City of Atlanta’s BeltLine Redevelopment Plan “violates the Educational Purpose Clause,” 283 Ga. at 96, rendered the resolutions, redevelopment plans, and intergovernmental agreements “local government approvals” approving the City’s Perry-Bolton and BeltLine tax allocation districts “TADs” unconstitutional in their entirety, void ab initio, and unamendable—even by constitutional amendment. Appellees—the Atlanta Independent School System, City of Atlanta, and Atlanta Development Authority—argue in response that Woodham invalidated only a particular bond issuance for the BeltLine project and had no effect at all on the constitutional validity of the local government approvals for the BeltLine TAD, much less the Perry-Bolton TAD.

Appellees are wrong. It is clear that, under the law when we decided Woodham in February 2008, the local government approvals for the Perry-Bolton and BeltLine TADs would have been ruled unconstitutional to the same extent that this Court held that the proposed funding for the BeltLine bonds was unconstitutional; at that time, local school taxes could not be used for general redevelopment purposes. But Sherman is also wrong—and decisively so—because the subsequent constitutional amendment and revision of the statute governing TADs changed the applicable law, and those changes were expressly made retroactive with respect to the county, city, and local board of education approvals needed to use school taxes for redevelopment purposes.

Sherman v. Atlanta Indep. Sch. Sys.

The 2008 Amendment to the Georgia Constitution rendered constitutional the Atlanta Independent School System, City of Atlanta and Atlanta Development Authority's reliance on school taxes to help fund the City of Atlanta's Perry-Bolton and Belt-Line tax allocation districts.

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