The City of Atlanta shares insights for increasing revenue.

• Author: Donaldson, Gary

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A significant number of local governments have experienced declines in their property tax base in recent years, caused by the sub-prime housing crisis and the continued overall weakness in the real estate market. Property tax revenues are the largest share of general fund revenues for the City of Atlanta, Georgia, about one-third. The dollar value of one mill (the amount of tax for every $1,000 of assessed property value) for the City of Atlanta has declined from $20.4 million in fiscal year 2010 to a projected $16.8 million in fiscal year 2012. In response to this decline in the property tax base, along with the other effects of the Great Recession, Atlanta has executed several revenue strategies and increased collaborative efforts between the city's finance organization and its service delivery departments and external agencies. These proactive revenue practices have helped the city meet its general fund revenue estimates and, in fact, exceed its anticipated revenue for the fiscal years ended June 30, 2010, and June 30, 2011.

THE REVENUE ROUNDTABLE

The Revenue Roundtable is a series of regularly scheduled review sessions intended to promote innovation and creativity through inter-departmental collaboration and brainstorming discussions. These sessions are attended by a cross-section of employees with varied job classifications. Revenue Roundtable discussions have led to a number of fee increases.

The Revenue Roundtable cycle starts with new fiscal year, when regular meetings begin. Six months into the fiscal year, attendees develop new revenue initiatives. Then they include new revenue initiatives that require legislative action (a revenue package, discussed below) as companion legislation with next year's budget adoption. Finally, they track and monitor execution of new revenue initiatives.

One of the main components of a productive roundtable meeting is to make sure all participants feel that their ideas are valued, however novel or ambitious. Including experienced and knowledgeable employees at different levels across the city organization often results in an original idea being vetted, revised, and shaped into a viable revenue initiative, right there at the meeting.

Attendees typically start out by reviewing each department's legislative code of ordinances and identifying the pertinent rates and charges that are allowable for that specific department. The department and/or function activity coding assigned by the city's financial systems and chart of accounts allows for a comprehensive classification of the fees and revenues generated by each department. Reviewing rates and charges, including benchmark comparisons with other jurisdictions, is also useful because there may be instances when the user...