Budget Reform

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Like many big American cities today, Atlanta faces declining revenue and a budget crunch. Last year, the City faced a $56 million budget shortfall. Our bond rating has fallen, our revenue streams are insufficient and our budgeting processes are a mess. While the budget crisis is due, in part, to the economic slump, many of our budgeting woes are under our control. We must fundamentally reform our budgeting process to create year-to-year stability and restore public trust in City Hall.

Amir's Solutions

Amir Farokhi is committed to comprehensive budget reform at City Hall -- starting with supporting the new five-year budget plan approach, as well as calling for public quarterly accounting updates for all city departments and establishment of a mandatory "rainy day" fund.

Even with a smarter budgeting process, we need to reduce expenditures and increase revenue. Amir Farokhi is committed to a leaner, more efficient, and more productive city.

Strengthen Budgetary Oversight

• Implement a five-year budget plan – The City’s current one-year budget undermines effective planning and fiscal discipline. The recent development of a five-year budget plan is a step toward good fiscal responsibility. Amir will lead the effort to adopt a more responsible approach to the City’s budget process.
• Demand public quarterly budget updates from all city departments – It is not enough to set budget targets at the beginning of each year. It is critical to publicly review actual expenditures and revenues throughout the year in order to catch problems before they develop into crises.
• Establish a rainy day fund - Amir will push for the City to be required to save money when revenues are strong so that the impact of revenue shortfalls due to economic downturns are reduced.

Reduce Expenditures

• Appropriate staffing for each department - In the current fiscal crisis, the City has relied heavily on furloughs to reduce our operating costs. While this is a short-term option, it fails to address the fundamental issue of efficient staffing. We need to undertake a comprehensive analysis of each department's staffing levels to eliminate redundancies and wasteful overtime spending.
• Sustainable practices - Amir Farokhi will promote cost reduction through incorporating proven sustainable practices throughout city government. The City can work in ways that are operationally efficient, fiscally responsible, and environmentally sustainable. Amir will lead the charge to reduce energy and water consumption in city buildings as well as to increase the efficiency of sanitation and service routes.
• Managing pension obligations- Amir Farokhi will work to manage the City's pension obligations so that the City may improve service delivery. We must balance (1) the use of strong benefits to attract the best talent to the City with (2) the City's financial capability.
• Sale of the City's Jail - Amir Farokhi believes we should sell the City's jail to Fulton County. Most individuals arrested in the City are sent to the Fulton County jail, leaving the City of Atlanta under-utilized and a drain on City resources. The money saved or collected from sale of the City's jail could immediately be put to work growing our police and fire forces.

Increasing Revenue

Amir Farokhi believes that Atlanta residents bear a disproportionate burden of paying for city services. Atlanta must create a new revenue framework that does not overburden Atlanta homeowners. Fortunately, we have many tools to increase revenue and reduce expenditures.

• Collect a five cents fee on plastic shopping bags – In addition to environmental benefits, a tax on plastic shopping bags will reduce the amount of tonnage in our landfills and consequent operating costs.
• Increase parking fees to offset services provided to non-residents – The City of Atlanta is happy to host many tourists and conventioneers. However, it is simply unfair that non-residents, who use the City’s services daily, do not contribute directly to payment for those services. Our roadways and other transportation infrastructure require increased maintenance in response to heavy commuter straffic. Increased parking fees will allow us to more fairly distribute the cost of maintaining our infrastructure among those who use it most heavily. Amir Farokhi will demand that non-residents who use our city, help pay for the services that benefit everyone who comes into our city. Amir Farokhi will investigate raising parking fees in the City to help properly share the burden currently carried only by Atlanta taxpayers.
• Leasing City Property - The City owns a lot of real property, a significant amount of which is either under utilized or vacant. Amir Farokhi believes that the City must have an aggressive property management program that produces revenue through strategic property leases and sales. This in turn will reduce or eliminate the cost to the City of maintaining such property.
• Improve enforcement and collection of traffic and code violation fines - We leave countless dollars on the table by failing to enforce codes and parking. Amir Farokhi believes that Atlanta cannot continue to fail to collect from those who violate our parking and code enforcement laws.