Wednesday, March 6, 2024–11:46 a.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
Rome’s second Tax Allocation District pays off this year, meaning that the property will go on the regular tax roll.
TAD #2 is in the area of Riverside Parkway and Turner McCall Boulevard and includes the Olive Garden, Starbucks, and the shopping center. It was the first TAD to be financed, according to Rome Finance Director Toni Rhinehart.
“You can dissolve it as long as you don’t have any debit in it,” she said. “It’s a contained TAD, so when the debt comes off, you can dissolve it.”
Under a TAD, any increase in property taxes stemming from improvements would be funneled back into the project for a set number of years.
Rome currently has four Tax Allocation Districts. TAD #1 is the largest, encompassing West Third Street, North Fifth Avenue, some of Martha Berry Boulevard, and Braves Boulevard. It will expire in 2035.
“We have cash funds for each TAD,” Rhinehart said. “There is basically a bucket for TAD #1 and TAD #2. They are completely separated. We have the debt payments associated with those TADs for payments that are issued and then we have some monies that are left over that you can use for infrastructure improvements in that area, like sidewalks or paving. We have budgeted some to use this year out of TAD #1 because we have built up some excess funds.”
TAD #3 is known as the Berry TAD and includes the mall, the Fairfield Inn at the tennis center, and other properties.
“Over the last couple of years there has been a decrease in valuation of some of that property,” Rhinehart said. “So, that has been difficult to be able to calculate the overall growth to be able to make the payment to Berry. Even though Berry’s hotel has increased in value, the overall TAD did not for a period of time.”
TAD #4 is the East Bend development at Hicks Drive and Turner McCall Boulevard. Rome City Manager Sammy Rich noted during a recent finance committee meeting that although net new property taxes for a TAD project are put back into the project for a set number of years, the city is already benefitting from the sales taxes that the new shopping center generates.
The City of Rome is in the process of establishing two more Tax Allocation Districts. TAD #5 would include 43 parcels on Martha Berry Boulevard from West Ninth Street to just south of Harbin Clinic. Rome’s sixth Tax Allocation District may be along the North Broad Street corridor in the area of a proposed new hotel. The 22 parcels are located within a larger North Broad Redevelopment Corridor, which consists of more than 1,700 parcels.
