Representatives of the Atlanta Tea Party were not convinced.
"I am appalled" at the secretive nature of the deal, says Debbie Dooley, co-chair of the Atlanta Tea Party. "The devil's always in the details, and there’s a lot of devils in these details."
One detail that caught Dooley's attention was the extension of a tax increase that had been previously approved to repay bonds—scheduled to expire in 2017 and 2018—that had funded parks projects. Cobb County spokesperson Robert Quigley says, "When those [bonds] expire, the proposal is to reallocate the monies that were used to pay for those [parks bonds] towards the debt for new bonds."
While the Tea Party group doesn't like the maneuver, Dooley acknowledges they will have a difficult time convincing commissioners to vote against the Braves stadium deal.
"I don’t know that our chances are that good," she says. "But we're pretty upset about it, and I don't think this is going to be forgotten."
Quigley, with Cobb County, says commission Chairman Tim Lee has said he believes the proposal can win unanimous approval at the Nov. 26 vote.