Ballpark millions defended

Charles Northrop can barely control his disdain as he talks about the Gwinnett County Commission’s decision to increase its contribution to a new baseball stadium by $19 million. But he still didn’t bother to lobby his elected officials to change their minds.

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“Wouldn’t make any difference,” the Snellville resident said, calling commissioners a “lost cause.”

The idea that the county is mindlessly spending away the county’s financial future for what Northrop called a “baseball boondoggle” is prevalent among the handful of critics who have come forward to question the deal.

Critics point to a countywide hiring freeze that excludes only police and fire positions, a decision by the tax commissioner’s office to cut its workweek to four days, and requests of police and fire employees to save gas as evidence of the county’s financial peril.

But county leaders say they’re making a sound decision that will pay dividends in the future.

“The business model in my mind is as sound as it ever was,” said Commissioner Bert Nasuti, who came up with the idea of bringing baseball to Gwinnett County.

His dream will come true next year when the top minor-league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves relocate to Lawrenceville from Richmond.

When county officials announced the stadium and relocation deal in January, the plan was for a $40 million stadium paid for with $7 million in cash contributions from the county’s recreation fund reserve and $33 million borrowed against future revenues generated by the county and a new car rental tax.

The county also agreed to pay $5 million in recreation reserve money to buy the land on Ga. 20 where the stadium is being built.

Last week, however, county officials revealed the stadium costs would increase from $40 million to $59 million, and that the county would have to make up the difference.

The commission voted Tuesday to approve withdrawing the money from the county’s general fund reserve — the rainy-day savings account for the county’s largest operating fund.

The decision won’t have a direct impact on county operations or tax bills, but will reduce the reserve fund by 12.5 percent, leaving a balance of $133 million.

By the end of the year, according to county finance director Lisa Johnsa, that reserve is expected to fall to about $107 million as county officials draw on the fund to pay for rising costs associated with hiring new personnel and higher price tags for everything from fuel to road fixings.

It will be the first time, Johnsa said, that the county actually has drawn on its reserves. The county has budgeted use of the reserves for years, but higher than expected revenues and lower than budgeted spending have helped prevent that from happening until now, she said.

The fund could be further depleted if the state Legislature does not restore funding under the Homeowners Tax Relief Grant, a program that was to have reimbursed Gwinnett County $14.2 million for property tax reductions that appear on the bills homeowners begin paying this month.

Of that, $13.2 million was to go to the general fund.

If that money is not restored, it could leave the county’s reserve balance at about $98 million. But even that amount is still well above the $69 million minimum reserve the county requires of itself, Johnsa said.

“We have some breathing room in our reserve,” she said.

And while some critics have said it is reckless to spend savings when revenues are at best stagnant and costs are rising, County Administrator Jock Connell said that’s what the money is there for: to prepare for emergencies and take advantage of opportunities the county would otherwise have to pass up.

“We knew a time was coming when we would use these funds,” he said.

Connell said using the reserve fund does limit the options available to county leaders when it comes to making hard choices about reducing services or raising taxes — a decision Connell notes he has been warning is coming for years and could begin to show up as early as this fall as the work of setting the 2009 budget gets into full swing.

But Nasuti said the stadium is an economic development project that eventually will bring the county more in revenues than it costs to build.

“If you stop all economic development activity when there’s a downturn, then you’re going to punish yourself in the long term,” he said.

It’s unclear exactly how much money the stadium will bring into the county.

County economist Alife Meek has estimated that the 72 home games scheduled for the stadium will produce $14.6 million in new economic activity in the county, a small portion of which the county will capture in the form of tax collections.

No one, Meek said, has so far studied what kind of impact the stadium will have on sales and property tax collections for the county. Meek said he expects to conduct that study once he has a better idea of what development around the stadium might look like.

The officials in charge of building the stadium say they believe the $59 million price tag is the final cost, and that the stadium should be open in time for 10 consecutive home games in April.

Commissioners interviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution all said they would be uncomfortable sending any more money to the project.

“If they come back they’re going to have a lot of answering to do,” Commissioner Kevin Kenerly said.