The only thing standing between Atlanta film mogul Tyler Perry’s deal involving millions of taxpayer dollars to park his jet in Cobb County is a superior court judge.
The judge will consider the proposal, which in addition to the $1.8 million tax break includes a $35.3 million bond deal to refinance the aircraft so Perry will register it to McCollum Field, on Oct. 5 at 10:30 a.m. during a bond validation hearing.
“Typically they go pretty smoothly,” Nelson Geter, executive director of Cobb’s development authority, said Thursday of the hearing.
He said this is the final step of a process that began in May when representatives for Perry approached the development authority.
State tax experts and former Cobb leaders doubt that the deal is worth forgoing the money.
The project was given the code name “Project Meatloaf” to keep negotiations private.
The basis of the deal is that Perry would move his aircraft from Fulton County and register the luxury Embraer jet — listed by Aviation Week in 2015 at $53 million — in Cobb.
The development authority argued that it would create 10 high-paying jobs and add to the county’s tax digest.
Wesley Tharpe, research director at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, previously said the 10-job deal “strikes me as a very questionable return on investment.”
Geter said the plane is already parked at the airport, joining the two other aircraft Perry’s company, ETPC Aviation LLC, already has there.
Perry has a reported net worth of $600 million.
After the development authority approved the deal in July, it was sent to the tax assessor’s office which approved the abatement schedule on Sept. 6, sending it to superior court.
If the judge gives the OK, all that’s left is a process similar to a real estate closing, he said.
As for when the deal would be final, Geter said, “It could happen a day after validation, it could happen six months after validation, we don’t set the schedule for that.”
For more specifics on elements of the proposal, read here on myAJC.com.
