Athens considers special tax allocation election
Jan. 28—The Athens City Council conducted a first reading Monday on setting a sales tax allocation election that would change the amount going to the Athens Economic Development Corporation.
Athens would conduct the election May 7, the day city and school voting will take place throughout the state.
AEDC is funded by a dedicated one-half cent sales tax. The ordinance ordering a special election would split that in two. One-quarter of a cent would still go to AEDC, while one-eighth would go in the general fund and one-eighth would be used to grant more property tax relief for residents.
Mayor Pro-tem Aaron Smith said the thought is the money in the general fund could be used projects to benefit the city that are not restricted by the rules governing Economic Development Corporations.
A previous major change to AEDC was made in 2019 when The Athens City Council approved a structure change to the Athens Economic Development Corporation structure Monday, moving the office of Executive Director under the supervision of the city manager.
In other action, the Council gave final approval to budget amendments Finance Director Mandie Quigg presented at the Jan. 10 meeting. The change adds $445,999 to the general fund budget, bringing the total to $12,733,133 and $116,827 to the utility fund, making the total $5,968,286.
Quigg said the amendment includes previously approved projects that were approved for 2021 but were not completed before the 2022 budget went into effect on Oct. 1. Changes in the GF budget include a new website, a police station architect agreement, equipment such as fire hoses, tasers and body cameras, a light duty pickup for animal control and dispatch console equipment.
Final readings were conducted for several items. The council approved:
—a request from Steve Jones for a zoning change from single family to multi-family 5 for a property on West Corsicana Street;
—a request from Billy Robinson to allow vehicle storage at the northwest corner of West State Highway 31 and Northwest Loop 7 and
—a site plan from Mitchell Kaufman for apartments on Farm-to-Market Road 2495.
