Pulaski Academy, the mostly white private school, has been trying to obtain tax-free municipal bonds to finance a new campus on the western fringe of the city. In the face of sure defeat, a proposal to allow city tax-free bonds for the school was pulled from City Board consideration. McSpadden says it's unfair to argue that taxpayers are subsidizing the bonds.
Taxpayers make no direct payment to the school.
That quacks an awful lot like ol' Subsidy McDuck to me. Rush Deacon, director of ADFA, has notified Mayor Jim Dailey that the law allows ADFA to issue bonds for a nonprofit K-12 school, even though it has not done so before. The agency was created primarily to finance low-income housing and economic development projects. Pulaski Academy qualifies as a nonprofit school, though it will not create jobs, house poor folks or provide vocational training. Deacon also has told Mayor Dailey that ADFA would not issue the bonds if the city objected.