Stadium construction
SunTrust Park cost: $672 million
Cobb County: $382 million*
Braves: $280 million**
Cumberland Community Improvement District: $10 million
* Includes $14 million in county Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenue for transportation projects.
** The Braves will also pay $6.1 million a year in rent, which Cobb will use for a portion of debt service.
Cobb County's latest financial projections show taxpayer's annual payments for SunTrust Park construction could be about $3.3 million less than originally thought .
Taxpayers may also get another break as countywide property taxes being dedicated to the project might come down because of higher-than-expected revenues.
An April financial analysis, obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution under Georgia’s Open Records Act, shows current interest rates would result in $20.7 million in annual payments on the sale of about $380 million in bonds. The county initially had estimated $24 million in annual debt service.
In addition to the lower payments, the county is projecting that it will receive $660,000 more than initially projected from hotel-motel taxes; and an additional $200,000 a year from the new car rental tax in unincorporated areas of the county. The additional hotel tax revenue projection does not include the expected bump in room rentals once SunTrust Park opens.
The combination of lower payments and more revenue could help the county bring down by half the county-wide .33-mill property tax rate being dedicated to stadium construction, according to the analysis. If the rate savings is realized, homeowners would pay about $12 a year for the stadium, over the next 30 years.
Commissioner Bob Ott, who represents the Cumberland area where the stadium is being built, said he wants to make sure that all savings or increased revenue is dedicated to reducing that property tax rate for the stadium.
“All of these things are positive signs, and reducing that .33-mills as much as possible — if not eliminating it altogether — is what the board needs to be looking at,” Ott said. “The chairman made a commitment to me when voting on the stadium that he’d bring forward a resolution doing just that.”
Commission Chairman Tim Lee did not return phone messages Friday seeking comment.
Jim Pehrson, the county’s finance director, said the exact amount of annual payments won’t be known until the bonds are sold, which can’t happen until after the Georgia Supreme Court rules on the legality of the county’s contribution toward the stadium. The court might issue its ruling Monday.
The county is contributing $368 million toward construction, but will borrow up to $397 million because it will build into the debt about 12 months of interest payments — called capitalized interest — along with other borrowing costs.
“We still don’t know the total amount of issuance costs, capitalized interest and what the interest rate will be,” Pehrson said. “From everything I’m hearing, rates should remain stable for the next few months.”
And while the county might spend less every year for the stadium, it is still a hefty financial commitment.
An amortization schedule for the debt, obtained by the AJC through an open records request, shows that the county would pay a total of $811.2 million for stadium construction over 30 years, including $592.4 million in interest. And those numbers do not include ancillary costs, such as the pedestrian-transit bridge the county plans to build over I-285, public safety costs, or road improvements.
Lance Lamberton, president of the Cobb Taxpayers Association, said if there are savings that county homeowners have a right to expect a reduction in the tax rate dedicated to the stadium.
“My concern, given the history of Cobb County politics … is that when they get extra money coming in they’re very reluctant to give it back to the taxpayer,” Lamberton said. “So holding Tim Lee’s feet to the fire will be critical.”
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