{"id":2222051,"date":"2024-04-16T07:41:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T11:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/expert-disputes-cobbs-view-of-braves-development-as-a-home-run\/"},"modified":"2024-04-16T07:46:57","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T11:46:57","slug":"expert-disputes-cobbs-view-of-braves-development-as-a-home-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/expert-disputes-cobbs-view-of-braves-development-as-a-home-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Specialist challenges Cobb&#8217;s perspective on the Braves&#8217; progress as a grand slam"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexpert-disputes-cobbs-view-of-braves-development-as-a-home-run%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2222051&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Cobb \u2063County officials promote \u200dthe Atlanta Braves stadium development\u200b near Smyrna, while an expert questions \u2063its financial success. The move to \u200dTruist\u2063 Park, previously SunTrust\u200c Park, in 2017 involved \u2064a $672 million \u2062project with \u2063Cobb committing $300 million in public funds.\u200d Revenue sources like hotel fees and car\u2064 taxes help cover\u2062 the $16.4 million annual debt\u200b service, with\u2064 the Braves paying additional rent.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>(The Center Square) \u2014 Cobb County officials continue to tout the benefits of the Atlanta Braves stadium development near Smyrna, but a leading expert says the project\u2019s finances aren\u2019t quite the home run leaders suggest.<\/p>\n<p>The Braves moved to Truist Park, initially named SunTrust Park, for the 2017 season, and Cobb officials committed $300 million in public funds for the $672 million stadium complex project.<\/p>\n<p>The county uses various revenue sources, including a nightly hotel room fee and a rental car tax, to fund its $16.4 million portion of the more than $22.4 million debt service annually. The Atlanta Braves pay an additional $6.1 million per year in rent.<\/p>\n<p>In a release that touted \u201cthe meteoric rise of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-releases-list-of-president-trumps-accomplishments-and-it-is-historic\/\" title=\"White House Releases List of President Trump\u2019s Accomplishments \u2013  And It Is Historic!\">property values<\/a>,\u201d Cobb officials said the county used less than $1.8 million from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/president-trump-please-pardon-jon-woods-a-victim-of-process-crimes-like-michael-flynn\/\" title=\"President Trump, Please Pardon Jon Woods, a Victim of Process Crimes Like Michael Flynn\">general fund<\/a> for the stadium\u2019s debt service, below the initial $6.4 million projection. Cobb officials said Battery businesses paid $2.6 million in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/amazon-wants-15-federal-minimum-wage-reports-small-businesses-would-be-hardest-hit\/\" title=\"Amazon Wants  Federal Minimum Wage; Reports: Small Businesses Would Be Hardest Hit\">property taxes<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe amount of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nycs-covid-policies-drove-wealthy-residents-and-their-21-billion-to-other-states\/\" title=\"NYC\u2019s Covid Policies Drove Wealthy Residents \u2014 And Their  Billion \u2014 To Other States\">property tax paid<\/a> by the Braves and Battery Atlanta complex more than exceeded the amount of general fund property taxes contributed to the debt service,\u201d Cobb County Chief Financial Officer Bill Volckmann said, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cobbcounty.org\/communications\/news\/annual-truist-park-and-battery-atlanta-report-shows-growth-exceeding-all\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>release<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, J.C. Bradbury, a professor of economics, finance and quantitative analysis at Kennesaw State University, told The Center Square he is curious why anyone thinks property tax payments exceeding general fund property tax contributions to the debt service is a relevant metric.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not remotely interesting and tells us nothing about the debt service going away,\u201d Bradbury said in an email, adding that Cobb\u2019s obligation is roughly $18 million annually when other contributions, such as capital maintenance and traffic management are added to the debt service and the $6.1 million in rent paid by the Braves is subtracted.<\/p>\n<p>Bradbury said his studies have found roughly $3 million in added tax revenue flows to Cobb\u2019s government to the opening of Truist Park and The Battery. The stadium generates a deficit of roughly $15 million annually, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFocusing on this strange comparison of these two sub-totals on a ledger is like Braves manager Brian Snitker celebrating the fact that his reliever pitched a clean inning in the midst of a 15-0 loss,\u201d Bradbury said. \u201cThis comparison is completely meaningless, and it conveys nothing about the salutary nature of the County\u2019s investment in the stadium, which is unambiguously costing Cobb taxpayers more than it generates in added tax revenue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems that County and Braves leaders think that if they keep repeating the fantasy that the stadium has been a net fiscal benefit to the County that it will come true,\u201d Bradbury added. \u201cThe statement that \u2018the annual fiscal report shows revenue from the complex again exceeds county taxpayer\u2019s contribution\u2019 is 100% false. Keep dreaming.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cobb County officials praise Atlanta Braves stadium development, yet an expert disputes the financial success. The move to Truist Park, formerly SunTrust Park, in 2017 saw Cobb officials invest $300 million<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2222052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP23253111051038-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2222051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP23253111051038-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2222051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2222051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2222052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2222051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2222051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2222051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}