Atlanta loves its teams. But even the most die-hard football fans are having trouble swallowing a proposal to spend almost 300 million tax dollars on a new stadium for the Falcons, Atlanta's home football team.
Georgians are still footing the bill for the Georgia Dome, the Falcons' current playing venue. The current payment schedule has the state paying off that debt around 2020. But the Falcons are tired of the dome. They want the dome torn down and replaced with a new, VERY expensive stadium with a retractable dome. What an obscene use of taxpayer money! The hotel tax revenues that are at stake could be used so much better. For instance, that money could be used to help Atlanta hotels go green with solar panels, water-saving appliances, and geothermal air conditioning systems.
Tell the Georgia World Congress Center Authority not to use hotel tax dollars to build a new stadium for the Falcons!
We the undersigned note that the economy is still terrible and many of us are suffering from the effects of unemployment and wage stagnation.
So this is not the time to be indulging the Falcons in their dream of tearing down a perfectly good football stadium and building a brand new one--at the expense of the tax payer. We note the the Falcons are a privately-owned franchise and that the state is still paying for the construction of the Georgia Dome in which the Falcons currently play. While we recognize the value of a home football team to Atlanta's local economy, we think there are much better uses to which 300 million in hotel tax revenues could be put.
Please do not squander tax dollars on a new Falcons stadium!
