A public authority in Cobb County may have the financial capacity to help pay for the planned Atlanta Braves stadium without a vote by the public, the county Board of Commissioners or a city council.

The Coliseum and Exhibit Hall Authority (Cobb-Marietta) opened the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in 2007. Credit: wdanielanderson.files.wordpress.com

The Coliseum and Exhibit Hall Authority (Cobb-Marietta) has the sole power to set the hotel tax rate, according to state law. The Braves began talks with the coliseum authority in July, according to espn.com.

The coliseum authority now operates three destinations in the Cumberland area near the site of the planned Braves ballpark – Cobb Galleria Centre, Galleria Specialty Shops, and the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

In 2010, the hotel tax generated in excess of $9 million. That figure is based on a report in the Marietta Daily Journal that an 8 percent payment from the authority to the Cobb County Convention & Visitors Bureau would amount to $8.9 million.

Click on the image for a larger version. The Atlanta Braves plan to build a ballfield that’s in the midst of a grid of big roads that are served by three interstate highways. Credit: Google Earth, David Pendered

The Braves announced Monday it plans to open the 2017 season in a new facility located in the northwest quadrant of the I-285/I-75 intersection. The projected cost is $672 million and up to $450 million of that amount is to come from an unidentified source in Cobb County.

Cobb Chairman Tim Lee has said the deal will be presented at the commission’s meeting Nov. 26, according to ajc.com.

The coliseum authority was created in 1980 by the Georgia Legislature for the purpose of, “acquiring, constructing and maintaining facilities for the general purpose of promoting cultural growth, education and welfare,” according to its website.

The board of the coliseum authority has seven members. According to Cobb’s website, the positions and incumbents are:

• Mayor of Marietta (Steve Tumlin);
• Mayor of Smyrna (Max Bacon)
• Appointee of Cobb County Board of Commissioners (Bob Voyles);
• Appointee of Board of Parks and Recreation (Johnny Gresham);
• Chairman of Cobb County Board of Commissioners (Tim Lee);
• Two appointees selected by the five members previously cited (Jerry Nix, Earl Smith).

According to state law, a coliseum and exhibit hall authority created before 1991 may levy a hotel/motel tax of up to 8 percent. The current hotel tax rate was unavailable Tuesday morning, as the county tax commissioner office couldn’t provide it and the authority’s spokesperson was unavailable for comment.

Cobb County’s existing sales tax rate is a total of 6 percent – 4 percent for the state sales tax, plus 1 percent for an education sales tax and 1 percent for a special purpose local option sales tax.

The following developments and purposes can be financed by a coliseum and exhibit hall authority, according to state law:

• “(A) Promoting tourism, conventions, and trade shows;
• “(B) Funding, supporting, acquiring, constructing, renovating, improving, and equipping buildings, structures, and facilities, including, but not limited to, a coliseum, exhibit hall, conference center, performing arts center, or any combination thereof, for convention, trade show, athletic, musical, theatrical, cultural, civic, and performing arts purposes and other events and activities for similar and related purposes, acquiring the necessary property therefore, both real and personal, and funding all expenses incident thereto, and supporting, maintaining, and promoting such facilities owned, operated, or leased by or to the local coliseum and exhibit hall authority or a downtown development authority.”