Committee considers sliding abatement scale and preserving school funds

Committee members debated how large abatements should be and whether the county should preserve education funding before applying abatement amounts. Regina Newman argued that school funds should be protected: "after you deduct out the school fund, then you've got what's left, which is general fund and that there should be a sliding scale," she said while discussing graduated abatement models.

Participants noted examples from other cities (Charlotte, Chattanooga) that start with higher abatements and decline over time; the group discussed tying abatement amounts to project characteristics and establishing maximum allowable percentages. The committee asked staff to provide benchmark graduated schedules and to draft ordinance language that would prioritize education funding and consider lower caps for retention extensions versus new projects.