What can we do with $200 Million? An Open Letter to the Atlanta City Council

Dear Atlanta City Council Members -

Thank you for your careful consideration of the true costs to the people of Atlanta that tearing down our well-attended Dome and going into about $300 million in debt for the next 30 years to subsidize the construction of a new stadium will pose.

Obviously our state leaders were astute enough to steer clear of this deal. I sure hope the people of Atlanta don't end up holding the bag for them.

I wanted to share with you my comments and support of a petition, and thank you for opening up a greater dialogue for better uses of our Atlanta investment funds that will come from the hotel / motel sales tax over the next thirty years.

We can do so much better -

Here's one idea for a better use of this funding -

      For $10 million a year, for thirty years, we could give a $1,000 stipend to 10,000 Atlanta-based HOPE scholars who choose to attend an accredited university inside the city limits. This will help make up for the shortfall that the state cut from their HOPE scholarships. By offering a HOPE Bonus, we would boost the Atlanta business owners who would profit from increased shopping and dining dollars that would come with more students in town, we'd boost the education level of Atlanta's work force, so companies considering locating here would be drawn to the idea of finding the talented employees they need, and we would create stronger community connections with people who are most likely to be college graduates, high earners, and investors in our city in the very near future.

When you consider that every high school senior who graduates with a HOPE scholarship is already the recipient of a $60,000  - $100,000 good investment in their education that's about to start paying off - a thousand dollar incentive that encourages them to come to Atlanta would be a great investment for us.

And of course, it would be a nice way to make Atlanta's institutes of higher learning even more desirable to our top students, too.

Just a thought.   I have a few more ideas in the comments below -

Hope you enjoy the possibilities -

Wishing you the best in all your deliberations.

Sincerely,


Molly Read Woo
 

The petition:

https://www.change.org/petitions/mayor-kasim-reed-and-the-atlanta-city-council-hold-a-referendum-on-public-financing-of-a-new-stadium-for-the-falcons#


My comments on the petition -

    This is such a rotten deal - to throw our kids and grand-kids into debt for 30 years  - for $300,000,000, if you count the $100,000,000 we still owe on the Dome, which we wouldn't recoup if we tore it down.

    For $300 million, we could cut our water bills in half, and give every Atlantan free pre-loaded Breeze cards for MARTA, expand the bus routes, and run the trains around the clock, so people can take it to catch a red-eye flight at Hartsfield, or home at night after working the late shift, and more businesses would come here, knowing people could always get to work in the city without having to deal with horrific traffic or paying out the nose for parking fees. 

   For $300 million and some volunteers with Habitat for Humanity and Hands on Atlanta, we could make Bankhead more like Buckhead and bring the kind of opportunities you see in Vinings to Vine City, instead of pretending like the temporary trickle down from a billionaire who benefits from scooping up our entire $200- $300 million hotel / motel sales tax for the next 30 years is a fair trade.

    For $300 million we could put construction of the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta on the fast track, and relocate the Georgia Music Hall of Fame here, right next to the new Atlanta Entertainment Industry Museum, featuring everyone from Sugarland to Usher, the Indigo Girls, and Cee Lo Green, to the history and happenings at Tyler Perry Studios, So So Def Records, and Turner Broadcasting, with a Cartoon Network Wing for kids and a retro room full of Gone with the Wind memorabilia for the old folks,  we'd draw millions of new visitors and billions of dollars in new business to Atlanta over the next 30 years.

    For $300 million, for the next 30 years - we could buy 1,000 tickets a day to different Atlanta music, theater, and sporting events, and give them to Atlanta residents with promotions  that would be an incredibly great boost to our city's cultural venues and a lot of fun for the folks who live here.

    This is our money - we earn it by selling goods and providing services. We also have to pay to keep up this city and its infrastructure so people can come and safely stay here. It doesn't matter if the buyers are out-of-towners or locals - the reality is - Atlantans are the ones who are working for the hotel / motel sales tax money,  Atlantans earn it - and Atlantans should have the final say in how we spend it.  That simple.

     There are a lot of things we need and a lot of things we can enjoy in this city. A $300,000,000 debt for a billionaire demanding a retractable roof stadium is not one of them.