The Milwaukee Braves moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1966 to play in a brand new, cookie cutter, multi-purpose stadium they would share with the Atlanta Falcons, an expansion team in the National Football League. Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was built for $18 million and was the pride of Georgia’s capitol city. This past Monday (11-11-2013) the Atlanta Braves announced they would be moving into a brand new stadium in neighboring Cobb County and would start playing in the new $672 million play pen in the 2017 season. Since 1997, the Braves have called Turner Field, which was reconfigured for the Braves after serving as the Olympic Stadium for the 1996 Summer Olympics that Atlanta hosted.
Newly re-elected Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed took a lot of heat in the Atlanta press on Monday. Reed and the Atlanta City Council had been accused of bending over backwards recently to appease the Falcons in their quest to build a new stadium in downtown Atlanta. The Falcons will play in a $1.2 billion stadium in 2017. The City of Atlanta will contribute $200 million of the construction cost. The city’s contribution will come out of a hotel motel tax.? Atlanta attracts 42 million visitors a year. Atlantans and the Atlanta press wondered aloud why Reed would appease the Falcons and not do the same to keep the Braves in the city. In a press conference on Tuesday, Mayor Reed outline the negotiations with the Braves. The Braves were seeking a $350 million contribution from the city – $150 in infrastructure improvements and $200 million in upgrades to Turner Field to remain in the city. That money would have come out of the city’s General Fund.? Mayor Reed, an acknowledged lifelong Braves fan, simply decided the city could not afford to meet the monetary demands made by the Braves.
Enter Cobb County, Georgia-one of the most conservative counties in the country. In fact, Cobb County is represented by two of the staunchest Tea Party Republicans in Washington-Phil Gingrey and Tom Price.? Tom Price is running for the Senate seat in Georgia that is being vacated by Saxby Chambliss. He vows to repeal the Affordable Care Act (?Obamacare?) in his first term in the Senate or in his words, he’ll ?go home.” Congressman Gingrey also said during the recent government shutdown that he was ?stuck? making the Congressional salary of $172,000 a year. His personal net worth is reportedly $3 million. Congressman Price, an M.D. by trade, is on record deny what he was taught about science by saying global warming was an ?evil hoax.” ?Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee (R) was recently re-elected to his seat. One of his re-election campaign pledges was to reduce property taxes in Cobb County and offsetting the lower taxes by raising sales tax by $.01. Reports are Cobb County will contribute as much as $450 million toward the $672 million construction cost of the Braves new stadium. That is approximately a 68% contribution.
The 68% tax payer funded contribution to the construction of a sports venue would appear to clash with the core principles of the T(axed)E(enough)A(lready) Party. Aren?t they supposed to be for lower taxes and for being good stewards of the people’s money? How can spending $450 million of the people’s money on a sports venue be justified as being good stewards of the people’s money?? Isn?t more than ironic that Kasim Reed, mayor of Atlanta and a Democrat, showed more fiscal responsibility than Tim Lee, the Republican Chairman of the Cobb County Commission? Why have both Congressman Phil Gingrey and Congressman Tim Price not been heard from? Why can’t Liberty Media, the parent company of the Braves and a company with $26 billion in assets, build their own stadium with no public dollars?
WHERE is the Cobb County (GA) Tea Party when you need them?
Edited/Published by: SB
