Cobb chairman says county’s investment in Braves will pay off
Cobb County officials released new projections for property and sales tax revenues from the Atlanta Braves new stadium and mixed-use development Thursday, saying that the venture is a good investment that will bring in more dollars than property owners will spend on it.
Commission Chairman Tim Lee said the stadium will generate $4.8 million in sales and property taxes in 2018, while the team’s private development of shops, restaurants, offices and hotel will bring in another $7.8 million in the same year.
That adds up to $12.6 million, compared to the $8.6 million annually coming from county-wide property tax revenue.
“We feel positive about this direction,” Lee said. “The projected revenue … will more than offset the investment by” Cobb property owners.
The revenue projections assume there will be no property tax abatements provided to the Braves mixed-use project by the Development Authority of Cobb County. When asked about that, Lee asserted that the county’s preliminary agreement with the Braves, called a Memorandum of Understanding, precludes the team from seeking the abatements.
“The Development Authority, as a governmental body of Cobb County, will not be issuing any incentives to the Braves … and that’s laid out in the MOU,” Lee said. “The MOU is very clear.”
There is no such language in the MOU. When asked if they could provide the language to which Lee was referring, a county spokesman issued the following statement: “Chairman Lee has consistently stated that he does not support offering county incentives for the mixed use project. Although this is not reflected in the MOU, he remains steadfast in his commitment.”
The Braves will not seek any property tax abatements from the Development Authority of Cobb County, Mike Plant, a team vice president, said Thursday night.
Lee said that current property tax revenue projections for this year are higher than anticipated, and that will allow a 10 percent reduction in the tax hike for businesses in the Cumberland business district, which is a major component of the county’s plan to pay for its share of the stadium.
Instead of a 3 mill tax increase on the businesses in the so-called Cumberland Community Improvement District, the county will impose a 2.7 mill increase when it sends tax bills in July, according to Lee.
Lee also said the county’s hotel-motel tax revenue is higher than expected this year.
In all, the county will spend $17.9 million a year on the stadium, for 30 years. That includes $8.6 million from county-wide property taxes; $5.1 million from the Cumberland CID tax increase; $2.7 million a year from a $3 hotel room charge; about $1 million from the existing hotel-motel tax; and $400,000 from a new rental car tax in unincorporated areas of the county.
About the Author
Dan Klepal is editor of the local government team, supervising nine reporters covering county and municipal governments and metro Atlanta. Klepal came to the AJC in 2012, after a long career covering city halls in Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky. He has covered Gwinnett and Cobb counties before spending three years on the investigative team.
