Any time a new professional sports stadium is being constructed, the amount of money the residents of the community have to pay remains a key issue.
Those residing in Cobb County, the future home of the Atlanta Braves, will be asked to take a $40 million tax increase to help make up for funds no longer available for public parks. That is on top of the $400 million the county is already on the hook for just to build a new stadium for the Braves.
In 2008, Cobb County approved $40 million in funds to acquire park land to meet the national standard for parkland to citizen ratio. However, only $20 million has been made available since that time for a litany of financial restraints and concerns. Now, faced with the tax hike coming their way to make up for that ground, residents want to know how that could be when $400 million has been made available to the Braves for the new stadium. With the construction of the stadium, Cobb County also needs to make up some lost ground to meet that park land per resident ratio, as the stadium is cutting into the former plans.
As noted by Field of Schemes, Cobb County has already redirected tax revenue that was to be used for public park funds in order to help pay the bonds associated with the stadium expenses. As you can see, this appears to be a bit of a messy situation, and one in which only the residents will be left without parks they previously voted for.
This also contradicts a previous claim made by the Braves and Cobb County, from the official website covering the construction of the stadium.
Cobb County homeowners will not see their taxes go up one penny, and no money will be diverted from public education or public safety. The bonds being financed to pay for the stadium’s construction will be paid off with revenue currently being used to pay down existing bonds that were taken out to complete countywide green space improvements. Once the green space bonds are paid off, the revenue will used to pay down the stadium bonds. Additional funds needed to pay for the new stadium will be paid by Cobb County businesses and visitors. In addition, no taxpayer dollars will go into the mixed-use development, which will generate millions of new dollars in sales and property tax revenue to the County.
Whoops. But who reads these things anyway, right?
On the other hand, if it is a dog park these residents were hoping for, the Braves could very well be underdogs for a few years. So, there’s that, right?
[Deadspin]
