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Debt Service in General Fund increases 14,293% but no Park Bond 2008 funding yet

8/30/2016

Question: How can the County have their cake & eat it too? Put another way, how can the County fully fund $40 million Park Bond 2008 Referendum and fund the $400 million Braves stadium bond?

Answer: Although the Braves stadium deal has a unique & complex payment plan that shifts tax money from the not-yet-funded 2008 Park Bond into the Braves bond, the Board can still fund Park Bond 2008 with taxes recently reduced in July 2016 by restoring those earmarked taxes in September for the 2017 Budget.

Call or send a quick email to the Commissioners here. The public is also invited to comment on the 2017 Budget on September 13 at 9:00 AM and September 27 at 7:00 PM. Members of the Cobb Parks Coalition will be there, so please join us!

The preliminary 2017 Budget was presented on August 23, 2016 at the Board of Commissioners Work Session. In the proposed budget, the Debt Service in the General Fund increases by 14,293% but only for the $400 million Braves Stadium Bond. See the county's PowerPoint image below.

= You can watch the entire 2017 Budget presentation here, and view the entire 2017 Budget PowerPoint here. Park Bond 2008 discussion starts at 1:07 on the video =

As it happens, the $40 million Park Bond 2008 obligation is not included in the proposed budget. Many Commissioners voiced some support during the August 23 meeting for adding Park Bond 2008 funding into the 2017 Budget, but it isn't included yet. Call or send a quick email to encourage the Commissioners to do the right thing.
As we know, Cobb County connected taxes from 'repaid' Park Bonds to the Braves stadium. However, the $40 million Park Bond 2008 Referendum approved by 65% of the electorate has not yet been funded.

From the Cobb County Braves FAQ Page:
"Will my property taxes be used to pay for this (the new Braves stadium)? Currently .33 mills of your property taxes pay for the parks bonds that were issued in 1996, 2007 and 2008. The last of those bonds will be paid off in 2017 and 2018. The millage will then be shifted to the General Fund when these bonds expire to raise an equivalent amount of revenues of $8.67 million. Those monies will then be used to pay for bonds to finance SunTrust Park construction. The average amount of .33 mills per household is $26 per year and this shift of funding will not impact other government services such as police, libraries, parks and other services."

The full $40 million Park Bond 2008 amount can & should be issued. We maintain that any assertion that only a percentage of the $40 million is available is incorrect because Park Bond 2008 Referendum was not funded and no bonds have been issued yet, so there is no repayment schedule to follow. The Park Bond was delayed due to the economy, so the bonds should simply be funded now to purchase property. See the front page MDJ article from last Sunday.
Park Bond 2008 should be started this fiscal year with a new repayment schedule beginning on October 1 to be ready for purchasing properties the Parks Department selects this October.

When the Budget is adopted on September 27, the Board can have both Park Bond 2008 & the Braves stadium fully funded, if the earmarked Park Bond 2008 tax money is restored to the 2017 Budget. Send a quick email to the Board of Commissioners asking them to do the right thing by voters.
Park Bond 2008 would save hundreds of acres of ideal parkland yet add only $8 a year for the average homeowner.

Kidding aside, it's time to fund the $40 million Park Bond 2008 as voters decided!

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New Letter: 2008 park bonds should be fully funded

8/25/2016

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2008 park bonds should be fully funded

DEAR EDITOR:
What caught my eye in the article (“On the table or off the market?” MDJ, 8/14/2016) are the eight potential parks crossed off with a red line. Now, those eight prime properties are developed, flattened and paved over. What a loss for all of us.

If the commissioners had purchased these properties in 2009 when the Citizens Advisory Committee submitted the list, those parks would be ours to enjoy with families and friends. Instead, the commissioners ignored the list and have not purchased a single acre of park land since 2008.

Especially heartbreaking is East-West Connector at Fontaine Road in Smyrna. Treasures on the tree-covered 64-acre property included a pond, streams, wetlands and mature trees. Seven years after Park Bond 2008 was passed by 2/3 of Cobb voters, this prime park land was destroyed. Now it is Cooper Lake at Fontaine, an upscale subdivision of several dozen homes — homes with exclusive access to Cooper Lake and Cooper Lake Creek. These are precious water features that should have belonged to all Cobb residents.

If the commissioners had acted sooner, this land could have been ours and our children’s, preserved as green space. What a legacy this 64 acres could have been for residents of Cobb County and Mableton and Smyrna neighborhoods: green space with a lake and stream, another park with access to the Silver Comet Trail. Sixty-four additional acres within a mile of Heritage Park, an existing county park.

Instead we have a bare, paved subdivision, trees cut down and topsoil scraped away. New houses add to the county tax base, but protected green space has value, too, and makes Cobb a desirable place to live.
I urge the commissioners to fully fund the $40 million Park Bond 2008 and purchase green space before it is all gone.

Cynthia Patterson
Marietta

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MDJ Article: ON THE TABLE OR OFF THE MARKET? Officials List of recommended future park properties set for October release

8/13/2016

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Photo by Emily Selby for the MDJ. This 53-acre property at 3450 Roswell Road was among the 29 properties that were listed as under consideration for the 2008 parks bond in October 2009. Though the property is at the center of a lawsuit following Cobb commissioners denial of a rezoning request to make way for a 481-unit senior residential complex on the site, it remains undeveloped today.

MDJ Article: ON THE TABLE OR OFF THE MARKET? Officials: List of recommended future park properties set for October release

by Jon Gargis

More than 160 properties across the county were nominated earlier this year to become the sites of some of Cobb’s next parks. But it remains to be seen which of those properties will be pursued by the county and how the county will get the funding to buy the land.

The county held a public nomination process from late January through April 15, with 166 properties nominated for purchase by the county to increase green space. The parcels are located in all areas of Cobb and range in size from 0.5 acres to more than 120 acres, said Tom Bills, senior project manager for the county’s parks department.

That nominating process, he said, mirrors the method county officials utilized after two-thirds of voters approved a $40 million parks bond in November 2008. That nomination process followed the vote and went into 2009, resulting in more than 330 nominated properties. Commissioners in late October 2009 were presented by the parks bond citizen advisory committee the list of 29 properties that had been whittled from those that were nominated.

But the bonds approved by voters were never issued by then-county Chairman Sam Olens due to a tanking economy and a tax increase he said would come as a result of the bonds’ issuance.

County officials say they cannot share the list of currently nominated properties as the information “relates to the potential acquisition of real estate,” said Sheri Kell, spokeswoman for the county.

And officials say they cannot reveal if any of the 29 properties recommended in 2009 were among those nominated this year, though Bills said that at the beginning of this year, of those 29, county officials could find no evidence of development activity on 21 of them.

“A key factor in this process is to refrain from publicizing specific information about the nominated properties,” Bills said, adding that the county’s recreation board, which is examining the list of nominations, only discusses specific properties under consideration in closed session.
He added that the board has an Oct. 25 deadline to present its list of recommended properties to the Board of Commissioners. Commissioners are scheduled to meet that day.

Cobb Chairman Tim Lee said that after receiving the list of recommended properties, commissioners will then have the opportunity to propose a path for moving forward on future parks. But Lee said he did not intend to propose any policy that binds the incoming administration. Lee was defeated last month in a runoff by Mike Boyce, a retired Marine colonel.

Boyce, who will take office in January, said he would want to see the commission act on the list before the end of the year.

“I think we need to get started on it now, because there’s no sense kicking the can down the road,” Boyce said, citing the $40 million parks bond that had not been acted upon. “But I have to respect the process, and the process is the budget. I’m very sensitive to the fact that the commissioners and the chairman have a responsibility to meet all of the priorities in the budget, and the parks bond is just one of them. It isn’t the only priority, it’s one of many, and it’s the responsibility of the board to look at the chairman’s proposed budget and see what they’re going to do with it.”

Commissioners differ on bond plans

Commissioner Bob Ott last week told the MDJ that he wanted to see a new $40 million green space referendum on the November ballot as it had been eight years since voters approved the referendum in 2008. He said he would call it a green space initiative rather than a park referendum because the goal is not necessarily to buy property to create more parks but to preserve green space.

[See 5 Letters to the Editor today opposed to Commissioner Ott's new plan to start over]

But Cobb Elections Director Janine Eveler said a ballot initiative is not possible this year, as Wednesday was the deadline to place measures on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Commissioner Lisa Cupid said a number of Cobb residents have put in a lot of work pushing for issuance of the 2008 bonds, and that pursuing a new referendum would extend the timeline of getting funding for future parks.

“For us to come up with something new, while I can understand some of the rationale for it, it would have been easier to consider a new approach to this earlier on. Right now, it seems like it would be very difficult — it doesn’t seem palatable, not with all this renewed energy to revising the park bond,” Cupid said.

Commissioner JoAnn Birrell said she prefers spending a full $40 million on green space, but said that because there is only $19 million left in the 2008 bond, the county should spend that first, with priority on the original properties identified to be used for that bond. She would then make up the balance of the $40 million with a new bond issuance or by funding it some other way in the county’s budget.

The earliest the county could put forth a new bond referendum is March, according to Eveler, though in comments made to the MDJ last week, Commissioner Bob Weatherford said the $19 million left in the 2008 bond is what the county should issue once commissioners receive the Recreation Board’s recommendations. He also said that he is considering asking for a public safety bond to be added to the March ballot.

But for Jennifer Burke, an east Cobb resident and member of the Cobb Parks Coalition, a do-over parks bond referendum is not acceptable, especially as time is of the essence — she said her organization believes about half the 29 properties recommended in 2009 have been developed or are in threat of being developed.

“Our goal is to have the full funding available as soon as possible because so many of them have been developed. It’s sort of been confusing when the county says a certain amount is available or a certain amount isn’t available when the county connected the park bond money to the Braves funding, which we actually felt that as long as the park bond was paid for first, that wouldn’t be an issue, but they haven’t funded the park bond,” Burke said, referring to the county’s decision to use property taxes to pay for bonds to finance construction of SunTrust Park, the stadium under construction in Cumberland that is set to become the home of the Atlanta Braves next spring.

According to the county, 0.33 mills in property taxes currently pay for outstanding parks bonds, with the last of them to be paid off in 2017 and 2018. The millage will then be shifted to the county’s general fund when the bonds expire to raise an equivalent amount of revenues of $8.67 million. Those monies will be used to pay for bonds to finance SunTrust Park’s construction.

“We can look to future referendums after the board fulfills this mandate the voters have already approved,” Burke said, “but to use the money that the voters approved for the Braves without funding what we voted for is basically misappropriation of funds as far as anybody can see.”

Photo by Emily Selby for the MDJ. The property listed at 2316 Pinkney Drive in Marietta was among 29 properties that were listed as under consideration for the 2008 park bond in October 2009. Since then, the property has undergone development and is no longer able to be used.

Properties under consideration in 2009

The list of 29 properties that were under consideration for purchase using the 2008 parks bond, published in the Marietta Daily Journal on Oct. 27, 2009. County officials said that of these properties, they could find no evidence of development activity on 21 of them, while the Cobb Parks Coalition believes about half the properties have been developed or are in threat of being developed.

Property Name                                                              Acreage
Lost Mountain Property off Dallas Highway 132.8
4750 Dallas Highway                                                    18.81
247 Wigley Road                                                           92.4
East-West Connector at Fontaine* 63.61
2820 Baker Road                                                          54
715 Lost Mountain Road* 149
5151 Brownsville Road 82.8
4957 Township Trace 56
3450 Roswell Road                                                       52.3
2341 Macland Road* 75
3801 Ebenezer Road 50
4570 Old Westside Road 14.6
Holly Springs Road* 31.1
4371 Keheley Drive                                                       25.76
2316 Pinkney Drive*                                                     17.1
3215 Mars Hill Road 2.5
Mars Hill Road                                                               7.6
3285, 3301 Mars Hill Road 2.4
3980 Jim Owens Road                                                  10.01
4150 Jim Owens Road 20.26
3291 / 3941 Bells Ferry Road 46.1
Sandy Plains Road/Mountain Road* 40
Buckner Road                                                                19.5
Shallowford/Childers* 13.7
3340 Stillhouse Road 2.5
Harding Property – Powder Springs Road 10
3140/3150 Robinson Road* 9
756 Kurtz Road 6.8
677/688/698/710 Shady Brooke Drive 3

* Denotes properties the county has determined as developed

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5 Letters to the Editor on Commissioner Ott's suggestion Cobbers start over with a new referendum

8/13/2016

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We don’t need a do-over

DEAR EDITOR:

In the Aug. 6 Around Town, Commissioner Bob Ott calls for a new $40 million green space referendum on the November ballot.

In 2008, 67 percent of voters approved a $40 million bond to “ acquire land located in Cobb County for use as public parks in perpetuity.” Since 2008, not one acre of land has been purchased, not one dollar has been funded.

Referendums are legally binding. Why do the commissioners think they are above the law?

Commissioner Ott’s proposal to ignore Park Bond 2008 and start over is another stalling tactic. Who benefits? Well, just follow the money. Developers benefit from paving and flattening precious land that should have been preserved as green space for Cobb residents.

In 2009, the Citizens Advisory Board submitted a list of 29 potential park properties to the commissioners and they ignored the list. Now half the properties are gone forever, making a profit for developers.

Using the smoke screen of “not raising taxes” is a moot point. The money was available in the Debt Service Fund until two weeks ago when Chairman Lee cut the park bond money and allocated the remainder to the SunTrust Park/ Braves Stadium complex.

Commissioner Ott states, “Let’s just do it again. Let the people decide. My guess is they’re going to say yes.”

We don’t need to do it again. The voters said yes in 2008. Why are the commissioners stalling?

Cynthia Patterson
Marietta

Fund $40M before we run out of green space

DEAR EDITOR:

Bob Ott’s idea calling for a new Parks Bond referendum is moot because this issue has already been voted on, not once, but twice by the voters of Cobb County.

First, in 2008, with 67 percent voter approval in favor of spending $40 million to buy land for parks, and second, in 2016, by voting to replace Tim Lee with Mike Boyce by an overwhelming majority.

The voters favored reinstating the democratic process that was usurped by Mr. Lee when he chose not to let Cobb County residents vote whether they wanted to pay for the Braves stadium or not.

At this point, delaying funds for months will not only harm the greenspace initiative, but will severely destroy many possibilities for land purchases. Eight years of watching proposed park land being bulldozed into oblivion due to Mr. Lee’s reallocation of park land money into the Braves coffers has been heartbreaking to watch. To delay any further would usurp the democratic process once again — that is to deny a referendum voted on and passed by the residents of Cobb, and to watch inaction once again by the Commissioners.

We already voted and have waited patiently for our commissioners to do the right thing. Please heed this warning. Don’t force voters to express their outrage again at the voting booth. Fund the $40 million as soon as possible before there is no greenspace left in Cobb.

Kaye Klapper
Smyrna

Cobb voters duped in a shell game

DEAR EDITOR:

This sounds like a classic shell game to me. “Let’s take the money here, promise it here, put it here and call it something else.” Then delay, look away, concentrate on something big, like the Braves stadium. With the focus off, we’ll say, “Oh well, darn, let’s just start over.” And nothing is happening except that developers are gobbling more and more of our precious greenspace and the citizens of Cobb are duped yet again. What is going on in our county? Looking forward to changes in January.

Rosemarie Perry
Marietta

Been there, done that

DEAR EDITOR:

I am commenting on the August 6, 2016, “Around Town: Ott Calls for New Green Space Referendum”.

Commissioner Bob Ott is calling for a new $40 million green space referendum on the 2016 November ballot.

Cobb County voters already approved $40 million via the 2008 ballot to buy park land that still awaits funding by the Board of Commissioners.

It’s the baseball stadium that was never approved by voters and should be listed on the ballot in November 2016!

Roberta Cook
Mableton

Heart of referendum debate is about democracy

DEAR EDITOR:

As Americans know, a referendum is the purest form of democracy, and 67 percent of Cobb citizens voted for the 2008 Park Bond Referendum.

Until two recent events, we thought the county would do the right thing by funding the $40 million Park Bond 2008 with the taxes already in the Debt Service Fund as planned.

The first event was on July 26, when Chairman Tim Lee asked the Board to reduce the Debt Service Fund used for Park Bond repayment to zero as the Braves stadium takes the rest of the Fund.

The second event we read in the Aug. 6 Around Town where Commissioner Bob Ott recommends the county nix the $40 million 2008 Park Bond and vote for a new $40 million 2016 greenspace referendum instead.

During these years of citizen effort, we have not said the board misappropriated the $40 million Park Bond funds from citizens. However, if the 2008 Park Bond is not funded as voters decided by referendum, and the county shifts the exact tax money set for repaying the Park Bond into the Braves Stadium Bond, then it appears to be the definition of misappropriation of funds.

According to the Georgia Constitution, any bonds can be refinanced, so the full $40 million 2008 Park Bond amount can be funded legally and easily today. Also, county financial transactions do not need to wait for the next budget cycle. For example, at the July 12 meeting, the board took out a $30 million loan for current expenditures without a referendum.

One important question is who benefits from these greenspace funding delays? We note only the developers who have bulldozed or threatened to develop over half the ideal properties the 2008 Cobb Citizen Advisory Committee selected for parks next to schools, neighborhoods, and trails. The time to act is now because developers are revving their engines on several more Park Bond properties.

The heart of the Park Bond referendum debate is actually about democracy. If a board decides not to fund a voter-approved referendum, and then shifts the money into another project, then that board is not aligned with the democratic process.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners should fund the referendum we voted for without delay or misappropriation. Voters can look to future referendums once the board fulfills this democratically elected mandate on greenspace.

Jennifer Burke
Cobb Parks Coalition

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How commissioners can fulfill the voter referendum on parks

8/3/2016

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From the MDJ Letters to the Editor: How commissioners can fulfill the voter referendum on parks

Dear Editor:

As Mark Twain said, “Buy land. They are not making it anymore.” We continue to ask the Board of Commissioners to fund the 2008 Park Bond Referendum that 67 percent of Cobb voters approved before the land is gone. The board has denied the democratic process by not funding the referendum created to provide an oasis of green space for communities.

Before July 26, 2016, the board could have funded both the $40 million 2008 Park Bond and the $400 million Braves Stadium Bond with the 0.33 mills property tax rate in the Debt Service Fund. But now the Debt Service Fund is in trouble.

At the July meeting, Chairman Tim Lee proposed lowering Debt Service Fund taxes by 0.1 mill, and the Board approved this reduction after already committing the other 0.23 mills in the Fund to the Braves Stadium. Reducing the tax rate nets just $8 for the average homeowner, saves no parkland, and appears to take the Debt Service Fund down to an unprecedented zero.

Zeroing out the Debt Service Fund would result in a tough situation for newly elected Chairman Mike Boyce. According to Cobb’s online records, the Debt Service Fund has never dropped below a 0.22 mill tax rate. The board should restore at least 0.1 mill to the Debt Service Fund for Park Bond 2008 repayment.

We also recently discovered the Debt Service Fund has been taking in millions more than projected for years due to the upbeat economy. So much more that Park Bond 2006 will be repaid a full 2 years earlier than planned. That means taxpayers could lose millions for Park Bond 2008 if the Board doesn’t fund it before Park Bond 2006 is repaid.

Justice delayed is justice denied. Because more than half of the 29 park bond properties have been bulldozed by developers, and more are in danger, we must keep pressing for Chairman Lee and the Board to fund the Park Bond now. The 46-acre Bells Ferry park property in Commissioner JoAnn Birrell’s District 3 is again under serious risk of development, and many more chosen park properties are, too.

Would citizens rather have 300 acres of pristine parkland or a one-time $8 refund? The choice is clear, and fulfilling Park Bond 2008 will be a win for everyone.

Jennifer Burke
Cobb Parks Coalition

From the MDJ Letters to the Editor: How commissioners can fulfill the voter referendum on parks

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Debt Service in General Fund increases 14,293% but no Park Bond 2008 funding yet

New Letter: 2008 park bonds should be fully funded

MDJ Article: ON THE TABLE OR OFF THE MARKET? Officials List of recommended future park properties set for October release

5 Letters to the Editor on Commissioner Ott's suggestion Cobbers start over with a new referendum

How commissioners can fulfill the voter referendum on parks

Cobb Parks Coalition Blog

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