Follow-up parks bond doable, but clock ticking

From the Marietta Daily Journal on Sunday , June 11, 2008 by Joe Kirby, Editorial Page editor

Like Atlanta Braves star Chipper Jones, who has been hitting over .400 all season, the Cobb Board of Commissioners has been on a tear in recent weeks, announcing a string of parkland acquisitions. First the 95-acre Hyde Farm property in east Cobb, then last week the 137-acre Stana property in deep southwest Cobb.

Those buys followed three other purchases in recent months, all made possible by the $40 million parks bond approved by Cobb voters in a November 2006 referendum. All told, the county has acquired 309 acres for $37.67 million, and has just over $2 million of the bond money left.

Now, with the county's nest egg just about all used up, several questions naturally arise:

• Have those buys satisfied the county's need for more parks?

• Do we now have on hand sufficient parkland to see us through not just the time being, but coming decades as well? Decades during which the county's population is expected to continue to grow substantially?

• If county leaders decide a decade or so hence that we need more parkland, will taxpayers be glad that we waited until then to buy it? Will they be glad leaders essentially decided to pay 2015 or 2020 or 2025 prices for ever-more-scarce land that could have been bought comparatively dirt cheap at 2008 or 2009 prices, had an earlier generation been more visionary?

• Will they be glad those leaders waited until there was almost no desirable land left for parks before they decided it was time to buy more? Or will the public regret that the county didn't buy more in the late '00s, when there were still numerous choice tracts from which to choose?

• Will they be glad their leaders decided to wait until the economy was "hot" in order to start looking for parkland to buy? Will they be glad that wait meant desirable land was much more expensive than it would have been had the leaders decided to take advantage of the stagnant economy of today, when the real estate market is deader than King Tut and landowners are more inclined to sell it to the public at a reasonable price?

The answers to those questions are obvious. Cobb tax dollars will someday be spent on additional parkland, without question. So it makes economic sense to get the most bang for the tax dollar by buying that land now, not later.

As for the "tax hit" from such a bond, keep in mind that the cost of the current $40 million bond worked out to just $13.60 per year for the owner of a $200,000 house -- the equivalent these days of about three gallons of gas. Which legacy would you prefer to leave your children? More parks, or three gallons of gas? The cost of a similar-sized bond today would be even less, just $11.20, thanks to lower interest rates.

The parks bond of 2006 was a masterpiece of grassroots planning and effort, and it paid off when 70 percent of voters cast ballots in favor of taxing themselves to buy more parkland. It proved to be one of the most politically popular measures ever presented to Cobb voters. And should there be a follow-up bond, there's a strong chance it would be met with the same welcome.

But time is running short. The "drop dead" date for the Cobb Commission to vote in order to put the measure on the November ballot is July 23, scarcely a month away. Commission Chairman Sam Olens is taking a measured approach, and with good reason. Tax increases are more palatable to the public if they are "bottom up," rather than "top down." That is, a tax proposed by a grassroots group is easier for the public to swallow than one decreed by elected officials.

As Olens told the MDJ late last week, "I would seriously consider another parks bond if there were significant grass roots support for it." Thus the future of a 2008 parks bond is where it beongs -- on the sturdy backs and shoulders of those who came together and worked their magic on the 2006 bond, and on those who have seen its results. A follow-up parks bond can still happen, but it's time to shift into a "hurry-up" offense.