Parks Proposal: Ballot unclear on tax burden

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Thursday, October 12, 2006 by AJC staff writer Craig Schneider

If Cobb County voters reject a $40 million parks initiative on Election Day, their property tax bills could go down a bit.

However, if they approve borrowing the money, Cobb officials say, their tax bills won't go up. That's because the county plans to take on the new debt as it pays off old debt, nearly balancing off the two.

Supporters gathered in support of the parks proposal Sunday said they're frustrated that the ballot language doesn't explicitly tout the fact that tax bills won't increase.

"It doesn't say anything about no taxes," lamented Paul Paulson, head of the Cobb Parks Coalition, which started the grass-roots effort to preserve more county green space.

Added David Connell, representing the local Chamber of Commerce, "It very much implies you're voting for a tax."

That's because you are, in the sense that you are voting to pay taxes for these parks. Over the course of the 10 years of the $40 million parks bond, Cobb residents will pay $51 million in interest and principal.

If the parks measure doesn't pass, the expiring debt could lead to a slight dip in tax bills, officials said.

"It's going to be a close vote," Connell said.

These jitters come less than a month before the vote, and they added to the group's urgency to muster support for the measure. By the end of the meeting, they grabbed up 200 lawn signs. Some said they would speak up in church. Connell said he is sending out 300 letters to business leaders.

Other people, though, still need convincing. They criticize the lack of specifics in the ballot, which doesn't say where the money would be spent, what kind of parks would go in, or how big the parks would be.

"There's just too much I do not know," said David Chastain, chairman of the Cobb Libertarian Party. "I'm going to vote against it."

John Osborne, who unsuccessfully ran for a County Commission seat this year, said he would prefer the county not borrow the money and instead reduce people's taxes. Osborne, who retired last year from the county Finance Department, said the county owns many open acres that it could make into parks.

Board of Commissioners Chairman Sam Olens addressed some of the concerns at the Sunday meeting and during a subsequent interview.

He acknowledged that Cobb has about 450 acres that could become parkland. But he said the great majority of that property already is spoken for. A few hundred acres in Pitner Road Park in northwest Cobb will become a mix of active and passive parks. And land along U.S. 41 near Acworth is slated primarily for soccer fields.

Olens said the commission has not decided what property the county might buy, but he assured the group that no land would be forcibly taken from property owners through eminent domain.

And he said the land predominantly would hold passive parks for nature walks, not ball fields.

Olens also tried to explain why the ballot does not say there will be no increase in overall property taxes. He said finding the exact legal language to explain the balance of debt could cause more confusion, with its talk of debt millage rates and such.

Olens said open land ranges in price from $100,000 an acre to more than $300,000. That means the money could buy anywhere from 133 to 400 acres.

Not every park must be huge, Olens said. He envisions "pocket parks" in areas that might include east Cobb County, Vinings and Oakdale.

To the parks supporters who gathered Sunday, failure is not an option.

They noted a study that said Cobb County loses about 7 acres a day of green space to development.

"As the land disappears, the urgency increases," said Roberta Cook of east Cobb.