Committee OKs downtown ‘slum’ designation | The Augusta Chronicle

Augusta Commission members debated the merits of declaring the central business district a “slum” to borrow money to renovate the Municipal Buil­ding, but ultimately a committee approved the measure 3-1 Monday.

“Part of that package was to be bonds based off SPLOST 7,” said Commissioner Wayne Guil­foyle, who opposed the measure. “I don’t believe in borrowing money we don’t have.”

The commission voted 7-1 in March to renovate the Munic­ipal Building by borrowing $26.5 million backed in part by future sales tax collections but didn’t discuss other details of the bond issue.

Attached to Monday’s finance committee agenda was the city’s plan to designate 594 downtown acres as a “slum” under a Georgia law to allow a special Urban Re­de­velop­ment Agency to issue tax-exempt bonds for the project.

Jim Plunkett, the special city counsel for bond projects, said he’d worked on the deal for months, though most commissioners said they knew nothing of its details until reading The Augusta Chron­icle on Friday or their lengthy agenda packets late Thursday.

via Committee OKs downtown ‘slum’ designation | The Augusta Chronicle.