The Rev. Anthony Motley wants a voice in whether a new $1 billion stadium for the Atlanta Falcons is constructed down the street from his church. But he increasingly worries that he might not get one, at least not through his state representative.
Gov. Nathan Deal has backed a plan to circumvent state lawmakers by pushing the city of Atlanta, instead of the state, to issue public bonds to build a new Falcons stadium. And many legislators are perfectly fine with that.
The legislative session is only a few weeks old, but already state lawmakers have shown an aversion to voting on some of the state’s most controversial issues. Decisions involving both the proposed stadium and Medicaid have been steered around legislators amid fears that anti-tax sentiment could doom the measures.
Deal argues that rerouting dicey decisions around nervous politicians sometimes can be the best way to get things done. But critics of the governor’s avoid-the-vote strategy have been unsparing in their calls for lawmakers to take a public stance on these high-profile debates.
“The General Assembly still needs to take a vote on something. The use of these quasi-government funding programs with public money really is like taxation without representation,” said William Perry, the executive director of Common Cause Georgia. “This is what we elected them for.”
With a hospital fee that propped up Medicaid expiring in July, lawmakers needed to find a way to extend the fees, known as the “bed tax,” or come up with another way to fill a more than $500 million shortfall in the budget. Even the state’s most fiscally conservative lawmakers worried that ending the fee would devastate Georgia’s health care system.
Deal’s office came up with a plan in which the Department of Community Health would levy the tax instead of lawmakers. Despite opposition from prominent anti-tax groups, who called it a gimmick to avoid a tough vote, it passed the Senate last month and cleared the House on Friday.
The pitch to use at least $200 million in public funds to help finance a downtown Atlanta Falcons stadium is a different debate because the facility is not seen as a necessity. While it’s been championed by Mayor Kasim Reed and encouraged at times by Deal, it’s never been considered as a priority in the Republican-dominated Legislature. Many are wary of being seen as giving a public handout to a billionaire stadium owner amid an economic crunch.
“If any of my constituents woke up one day and learned the state was no longer in the stadium business, their life would go on fine,” said state Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta. “They don’t think the state should be in the stadium business, and neither do I.”
Legislative leaders say a vote in either chamber on the stadium project would be a tough sell. Roughly two-thirds of the GOP caucus is against it, they say, which would mean Democrats would have to vote in near-unanimity to preserve the deal. That’s an unlikely prospect given some dissension among the Democratic rank-and-file as well.
That uncertainty forced Falcons executives back to the bargaining table to rework the December deal struck with the Georgia World Congress Center, which hinged on state legislative approval for $300 million in state bonds backed by Atlanta’s hotel-motel tax.
The Falcons are drafting a new agreement with state and city officials that calls for Blank to pony up at least $100 million more toward the stadium’s construction plus another $60 million to pay off the bulk of the Georgia Dome’s outstanding debt. Blank, who sits on the board of Cox Enterprises, which owns the AJC, could be putting $860 million into the project altogether.
The deal likely would involve routing $200 million in public funds through the city of Atlanta, hoping to spare state lawmakers of a vote — and possibly the wrath of the public. Polls have shown dismal public support among metro Atlanta residents for using public funds to finance the stadium.
“They want the stadium deal and they don’t want to have to deal with a public vote to get it done. It’s a political hot potato, and we don’t know who to work with,” said Motley, whose church is near the likely site of the new stadium. “We need to sit down with the appropriate people to share our concerns, but we’re not sure yet who it is.”
Reed said in an interview Friday he hasn’t made any final decision on whether to use Atlanta bonds to finance part of the stadium, but he’s directed city attorneys to study how it could impact the city’s budget and credit ratings.
Deal, for his part, argues that freeing lawmakers of the short-term political consequences of a difficult decision can be the only way to do what’s best for the state.
“Sometimes, issues that are important to the state are not always easy to reconcile with their constituents back home,” the governor said in an interview last week. “The more that you ask them to make these hard choices, the more difficult it becomes to achieve what you really have in mind.”
The stadium project, he added, “is one that has significance for the entire state of Georgia.”
Some lawmakers brush off the notion that Deal is looking to shield them with his move. They say he’s trying to insulate himself from conservative critics as he prepares to run for re-election.
“This isn’t because the governor wants to protect legislators from unpopular votes. He just doesn’t want to be perceived as pushing unpopular issues,” said state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta. The intent, he said, is to protect the governor from negative backlash. “Is that leadership? I don’t believe it is.”
Democrats aren’t the only ones who aren’t against a vote on the issue. The legislative end-arounds put lawmakers in an uncomfortable position, depriving them of a voice on some of the state’s biggest questions.
“The voters sent us down here to make these types of decisions, and some are tougher than others,” said state Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, of a public vote on the Falcons stadium. “I’m a proponent of the rebirth of the Falcons and I want to work toward that goal.”
What’s still uncertain is whether lawmakers can legally avoid a vote, regardless of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Some point to a state law that requires any Georgia World Congress Center lease that exceeds 10 years to be approved by House and Senate fiscal affairs panels. Others say the Legislature would have no role if lawmakers aren’t asked to chip in additional funding.
“There would be nothing to vote on if they don’t increase the state’s bonding capacity,” said Senate President Pro Tem David Shafer. “If the stadium is financed by city of Atlanta hotel-motel taxes, and the bonds are handled by the city, there’s no need for legislative approval.”
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