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Saturday, September 6, 2008
Stadium costs rise in tight times
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My house needs new kitchen cabinets as well as bathroom fixtures. But in this sour economic climate, big-ticket projects like that have to be put on hold.
However, if I ran my house the way some county leaders run their governments, contractors would already be on the job. That type of illogical budgeting and planning has landed Gwinnett County in a fix over construction of its minor-league stadium. The county plans to spend another $19 million to complete the venue under construction on Buford Drive near I-85 in Lawrenceville.
The additional money represents a 50 percent increase in the initial $40 million construction price. Commissioners OK’d the spending increase Tuesday without public comment. They said they didn’t need to hear from us because it was a straightforward decision; without the extra taxpayer money, the project would cease.
In January, county officials announced the stadium project amid much hoopla and hype. Then, I wrote a column saying a top minor-league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves might create an identity for a ‘burb that’s been a mess of strip malls and cookie-cutter subdivisions.
Like others, I championed the greater good for the community, even though Gwinnett’s 776,380 residents were never asked about the project. County officials had said no property tax increases would be needed to fund the facility. The assumption was that the estimated cost of construction was within range.
But as time goes on, a growing stench surrounds the project.
In April, we learned from records obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act that officials had indeed talked about the possibility of a small property tax increase to finance the AAA complex. In July, we were told the stadium was on schedule to be finished by the April 2009 opening day of the International League, and that it was free of cost overruns.
Now this — a $19 million dip into the reserve fund. This at a time when the county has imposed a hiring freeze for nonemergency workers, the tax commissioner’s office works a four-day week to save on energy costs and the county may have to cut costs or raise taxes to account for slowing revenue growth.
But let’s not be pessimistic.
Maybe the stadium will stop eating money. Maybe it will finish under budget and be a success like the Gwinnett Arena. Maybe it will pay for itself from day one, as County Administrator Jock Connell claims.
Right now, though, all I can compare this project to are those upgrades for my home, the ones that got postponed till a better day.
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