A nonprofit watchdog group has filed a second petition to bring the partial public financing of the new $1 billion Falcons stadium to a vote.
Common Cause Georgia announced last week an effort put the stadium funding issue to referendum on the November ballot. The group filed a request to petition voters on whether to repeal the resolution allowing the city to commit $200 million in hotel-motel taxes in the construction project.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed called the group’s efforts last week a “losing proposition.” The following day, the request was denied by the city’s legal department, which said a 1998 Georgia Supreme Court ruling prohibited the petition.
The latest petition request aims to amend the city charter to block the financing with hotel-motel taxes. The group must collect at least 35,000 names of registered voters to have the vote placed on the November ballot.
City officials did not respond Wednesday to the latest petition request.
It’s unclear whether a referendum would delay construction of the stadium, which the Falcons plan to open in 2017. Beyond the public dollars, the construction is to be funded by the Falcons, the NFL and proceeds from the sales of personal seat licenses. Additional hotel-motel tax funds, under the 2010 extension of that tax the Legislature approved, must go toward financing, maintaining and operating the stadium over the next 30 years.
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