Not one bit. Completely blindsided. Never thought it possible.
Racist Park Great White Flight Field SunTrust Park, the future home of the Atlanta Braves, promised that it would not cost Cobb County residents anything (publicly) out of their pockets. However, Cobb County has blown through its public parks budget, solely on the construction of SunTrust Park; and if Cobb residents actually want actual, useable, public parkland, a tax increase will be needed.
Yup, never would have imagined that SunTrust Park would actually fail to deliver on the promise that their construction wasn’t going to cost Cobb residents anything. Who would’ve guessed this?
I mean, anyone who believed that SunTrust Park wasn’t going to cost residents anything also probably believe in the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. Sure, it’s easy to say that the funding is going to come solely from hotel taxes and other means, but wherever there is a general lack of transparency, the public is going to suffer, whether they realize it or not. Be it through some sort of tax break that inhibits the cash flow in some sort of public function, or this hilarious publicly revealed snafu of the county blowing through its parks budget and now needing to raise taxes to fulfill its financial obligation, stadium construction is pretty much one of the worst rackets ever.