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beltline ssd financial review 2025 - june 2025


Beltline SSD Financial Review 2025
Released: June 2025

Download the Full Report here

​In March 2021, the Atlanta City Council approved Ordinance No. 21-O-0049, which created the BeltLine Special Service District and required the city auditor to provide a financial review of the district every two years.  The BeltLine Special Service District is a targeted tax district in which commercial, industrial, and multi-family property owners pay additional property taxes to fund completion of the Atlanta BeltLine trail.  This is the second review undertaken in compliance with the ordinance.
 
We recommended that to ensure that City Council has sufficient information for decision making, the chief operating officer work with Invest Atlanta and ABI to report tax collections compared to projections over the life of the bond, total bond funds spent to date, percentage completion for projects funded by the special service district, total amount in the discretionary fund for prepayment and for project costs, along with the amount and type of expenses.
We found:
  • As of February 28, 2025, ABI (Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.) spent $67.1 million of the bond proceeds to construct trail segments on the Southside, Northwest, and Westside trails. ABI staff anticipates that projects will be completed by end of fiscal year 2026.
  • We reviewed ABI’s vendor invoice payment process to assess whether controls were in place to ensure that SSD bond proceeds were spent appropriately and found that all invoices in our sample complied with guidelines for allowable expenses and all payment requisitions showed consistent documentation for work performed and documentation of approvals.
  • We also found that three of the four recommendations made in our 2022 audit BeltLine Special Service District Financial Review were fully implemented, related to clarifying roles between ABI and its partner entities, establishing clearer accounting practices, and updating program policies and procedures.  Although ABI developed a reporting framework, quarterly presentations to City Council did not include SSD specific information; this recommendation is partially implemented.