Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2008 > September > 06 > Entry
Stadium costs rise in tight times
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My house needs new kitchen cabinets as well as bathroom fixtures. But in this sour economic climate, big-ticket projects like that have to be put on hold.
However, if I ran my house the way some county leaders run their governments, contractors would already be on the job. That type of illogical budgeting and planning has landed Gwinnett County in a fix over construction of its minor-league stadium. The county plans to spend another $19 million to complete the venue under construction on Buford Drive near I-85 in Lawrenceville.
The additional money represents a 50 percent increase in the initial $40 million construction price. Commissioners OK’d the spending increase Tuesday without public comment. They said they didn’t need to hear from us because it was a straightforward decision; without the extra taxpayer money, the project would cease.
In January, county officials announced the stadium project amid much hoopla and hype. Then, I wrote a column saying a top minor-league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves might create an identity for a ‘burb that’s been a mess of strip malls and cookie-cutter subdivisions.
Like others, I championed the greater good for the community, even though Gwinnett’s 776,380 residents were never asked about the project. County officials had said no property tax increases would be needed to fund the facility. The assumption was that the estimated cost of construction was within range.
But as time goes on, a growing stench surrounds the project.
In April, we learned from records obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act that officials had indeed talked about the possibility of a small property tax increase to finance the AAA complex. In July, we were told the stadium was on schedule to be finished by the April 2009 opening day of the International League, and that it was free of cost overruns.
Now this — a $19 million dip into the reserve fund. This at a time when the county has imposed a hiring freeze for nonemergency workers, the tax commissioner’s office works a four-day week to save on energy costs and the county may have to cut costs or raise taxes to account for slowing revenue growth.
But let’s not be pessimistic.
Maybe the stadium will stop eating money. Maybe it will finish under budget and be a success like the Gwinnett Arena. Maybe it will pay for itself from day one, as County Administrator Jock Connell claims.
Right now, though, all I can compare this project to are those upgrades for my home, the ones that got postponed till a better day.
Permalink | Comments (21) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Comments
By Michael H. Smith
September 6, 2008 9:57 AM | Link to this
However, if I ran my house the way some county leaders run their governments, contractors would already be on the job.
Therein lays the problem Mr. Badie. Some county leaders have forgotten they’re not running “their governments”. They are mismanaging “our government”.
By Cindy
September 6, 2008 11:03 AM | Link to this
Micheael, that’s because they think we’re too stupid to care what happens and are just sleeping through the whole thing.
By Cindy
September 6, 2008 11:06 AM | Link to this
Sorry about the way I spelled your name. My eyes think it’s still time to be asleep.
By Cindy
September 6, 2008 11:13 AM | Link to this
Rockdale County is trying to offer new options to help their citizens. Looks good…especially the Saturday option.
http://www.rockdalecitizen.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=4202
By Lee
September 6, 2008 11:28 AM | Link to this
“Government is inherently incompetent, and no matter what task it is assigned, it will do that task in the most expensive and inefficient way possible.” Charlie Reese
Counterpoint - government has exhibited competence in one area - that is spending the taxpayers money.
By Twynn
September 6, 2008 11:42 AM | Link to this
That competence is marred by the fact that they spend it on the wrong things.
By LT5000
September 6, 2008 11:46 AM | Link to this
Here’s my plan for the stadium. After it is open for a few months advertise a Mexican soccer matchup between the Chivas and America.
Then at halftime turn it into the country’s largest INS detention center.
This is the only way I could see this stadium benefiting Gwinnett County.
LT5000
By Twynn
September 6, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this
That’s probably the county’s plan too, minus the INS part. They have to make money somehow and the ballgames will utilize it only part of the time. Besides, what happens when people don’t want to attend the games? No people=no money.
By Michael H. Smith
September 6, 2008 12:05 PM | Link to this
The option I like best is open ballot access. We once had ballot access in Georgia but that right was taken away from we citizens. If we had ballot access we could undo things like this ballpark boondoggle Cindy. Now we are going to be forced to accept it in the most inappropriate of all financial times. Not to mention with ballot access we might actually see Independent candidates run for elected office were it is easier to get on the ballot without having to join one of the two major political parties.
Reminder Citizens of Gwinnett: Counties are required by state law to operate under balanced budgets.
By Twynn
September 6, 2008 12:52 PM | Link to this
Why was it taken away?
By Mark
September 6, 2008 1:29 PM | Link to this
LT5000
A great plan! Hats off to you!!!
By Michael H. Smith
September 6, 2008 3:44 PM | Link to this
Twynn@12:52 PM
Very simple answer: To keep power over government and politicians from the people.
Do you think if the citizens of this county could pass a ballot initiative directly that would strike down Bert’s baseball deal he would have ever tried, let alone, done this thing?
No, we little children are just too incompetent handle access to direct ballot initiative and popular referendum so we have to wait for our holier than thou wiser than us legislators to tell us what will go on the ballot and what will be passed into law.
Now you know why we have stupid laws in the State of Georgia. Why we also will never see some honest person be able to put their name on a ballot to run for office because the two major parties have a monopoly over what is supposed to be government of, for and by the people; instead of the government that we have: Of, for and by the Democrats or the Republicans.
By The Way
September 6, 2008 9:18 PM | Link to this
McCangelina 08: A nice rack trumps Barrack.
Q: Sarah Palin, her daughter Bristol, and John McCain.
A: Name two hockey moms and a puck.
I’m analchord and I marooned this message.
By Twynn
September 6, 2008 10:40 PM | Link to this
Thank you Micheael.
The Way, that’s one of the oddest comments I’ve ever seen on here. But ok.
By Tar and feathered
September 7, 2008 6:23 AM | Link to this
The way- how many times are you going to tell the same joke and on how many different blogs? You lift the joke from someone else’s post, repeat it over and over and think that no one notices? You just post to post and have nothing to say of any relevance. Unoriginal, lonely, fraudulent and lame.
By Goose Bumps
September 7, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this
A: Sarah Palin, her underaged, unmarried daughter, and John McCain.
Q: Name two hockey moms and a puck.
an open letter to Mr Woo, of China.
So Track joined the army. The only goose bumps that someone might get looking at the flag (the flag that Cheney and Rove hide behind) is the blisters they have from Cheney’s drunken firearm mishaps.
That opens up Iraq as a topic as readily as Mr. Woo, of China, opened up the Mother Goose story he spun, about there being any political justice beyond the constitutional disenfranchisement of the 300 million victims of 911: just us.
Why? Because this war isn’t a war. It’s a hybrid coming-of-age, (nursery-rhyme free), of three different Islamo-Christian sojourns, which themselves are an ever-changing melee of invented national security precautions and misguided nation building.
There’s no need to summarize the 100 year history of the Christian West and the Islamic Hoards sitting on all that oil and how much justice we afforded their own national autonomy.
This war is from people’s everyday lives, with faucets a-drippin’ and lights a-flickerin’ and baby’s a-cryin, but these are ethno-sectarian lives, whose goose-bumps aren’t inspired by any one flag, but rather the tattered rags of past genocide; not so much hand-me-down as hand-me-a-grenade. We are dealing with the history of perpetual ethnic bandages and self-fulfilling sectarian blood.
To ignore history is 2 cause armeggedon. The planet has a self-help book, and it’s the planet’s first self help book (especially the chapter about self-fulfilling prophesies): the Bible which was written by the same folks what brung us M. Goose, oddly enough).
True.
The Bible: Chapter 37. Now we come to the crux of the fruition of the crucifixion: Does God talk to us, literally, so that we can gain counsel from a message we receive from him, as we pray about how to behave concerning the little events in our lives, like fixin the screen door, and plowing up the back forty, and ambushing our neighbor before he ambushes us? Are we all Kings with diplomatic immunity for our acts when we declare them to be acts of God? (as bush did, and Sarah Palin does)?
There was a cold woman who lived near igloos. She kept having children, (is she red state or blue)? She flashed bright at Right moths then hid from the press, thus the state where she wins is the state of undress.
Proof: Chapter 37 of the Kama Sutra is the page where they depict the Missionary Postion. Coincidence? I think not. This is the only place where East meets West. It’s like the bible code, and God is telling us something about Sarah Palin.
I’m Pofo and I’m immune from the consequences of this message so ordained by bush’s entire presidency.
This is Y I rule the AJC. If you were wondering. What’s he got that I aint got?
Everything.
By Tar and feathered
September 7, 2008 5:03 PM | Link to this
Calling yourself goose bumps now “Way”? Still claiming you rule the AJC. Please! Let’s face it, you’re a lonely immature, unoriginal troll, nothing more.
By Tar and feathered
September 7, 2008 5:09 PM | Link to this
He’s also calling himself peer’er pressure as well. SOOOO transparent.
By Twynn
September 7, 2008 9:35 PM | Link to this
I’m good with moving on to discussing the grand jury investigations.
I’m really curious as to why the sheriff is being investigated, However the lady major who went into a GCPD meeting all up in panic and told the attendees that if they didn’t want Lorraine Green to come in and change up the whole department, they’d better vote for Bannister, has just been totally overlooked and unaddressed.
Is that how things are done in Gwinnett? Or is Bannister just simply returning the favor?
By Bonedaddy
September 8, 2008 7:23 AM | Link to this
Goose bumps-WTF?
By Mary's Mom
September 8, 2008 10:24 AM | Link to this
LT5000 - Pretty neat idea! I like a creative solution.
Dear “Goose Bumps”- You’re a douche. Time to tell your caretaker you want your medicine and go back to your cell.