ADW ATLANTA DAILY WORLD
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Volume 85 Issue 33
Tyler Perry’s Temptation Premiere Page 6
Churches in the Path of Stadium Page 7
Mike Tyson has New TV Series Page 8
ADW World Of Pictures Page 12
March 21 - 27, 2013
Falcon’s Stadium Deal Clears
City Council Hurdle
Photo by Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mayor Kasim Reed (with Councilmember Michael Julian Bond in background) is applauded as the City Council approves the stadium funding plan.
By ADW Staff The biggest hurdle has been cleared on the path to a new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons as the Atlanta City Council voted late Monday night to approve a funding plan for the new $1 billion retractable roof stadium. Falcons owner Arthur Blank called it ''a win-win'' and earlier promised that the new stadium will help the city continue to compete for all major events, including the Super Bowl. ''That's the only secret ballot in the NFL,'' he said. ''We'll have to earn it. But this public support is an important piece.'' Mayor Kasim Reed called the arrangement ''a great public-private partnership'' that will benefit the city and the state. The council voted 11-4 in favor of using city hotel-motel taxes to pay an estimated $200 million toward construction costs and potentially several times that toward costs of financing, maintaining and operating the stadium through 2050. All things considered, the cost to the public could actually end up being closer to $900 million. Through principal and interest payments, the hotel-motel tax could be as much as $450 million over 30 years and, according to projections cited by the AJC, another $450 million could go to the stadium over the years for operations and expenses through a "waterfall" fund. The $200 million number is a conservative estimate of the cost. The money going toward the stadium comes from the 39.3 percent of Atlanta's 7-cents-per-dollar hotel-motel tax that is mandated by state law to go to the Georgia World Congress Center Authoirty or a stadium project. In light of those numbers, City Councilmember Aaron Watson said he would no longer characterize the public contribution to the project as only the $200 million toward upfront construction.. Page 3
Republicans to Spend $10 Million to Reach Minorities By Associated Press Reeling from back-to-back presidential losses and struggling to cope with the country’s changing racial and ethnic makeup, the Republican National Committee plans to spend $10 million this year to send hundreds of party workers into Hispanic, Black and Asian communities to promote its brand among voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in 2012. Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Sunday also proposed shortening the presidential nominating calendar in 2016 and limiting the number of primary-season debates to avoid the self-inflicted damage from inside-party squabbling on the eventual nominee. Priebus’ top-to-bottom changes include picking the moderators for the debates and then crowning the nominee as early as June so he or she could begin a general election campaign as quickly as possible. “Mitt Romney was a sitting duck for two months over the summer,” Priebus said of the 2012 GOP nominee.
To help his party ahead of the 2016 contest already in its earliest stages, Priebus said he would be hiring new staffers to build the GOP among voters in the states. “It will include hundreds of people — paid — across the country, from coast-to-coast, in Hispanic, AfricanAmerican, Asian communities, talking about our party, talking about our brand, talking about what we believe in, going to community events, going to swearing-in ceremonies, being a part of the community on an on-going basis, paid for by the Republican National Committee, to make the case for our party and our candidates,” Priebus said. That move was part of the recommendations included in a month’s long look at what went wrong in 2012. Priebus tapped a handful of respected party leaders to examine how the GOP could better talk with voters, raise money from donors and learn from Democrats’ tactics. Priebus also asked the group to examine how they could work with independent groups, such as super political action committees.
Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary under former president George W. Bush, and Sally Bradshaw, a veteran strategist and top adviser to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, were among those leading the inquiry. Republican National Committeeman Henry Barbour, a GOP strategist and nephew of former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, was also part of the group. Page 3
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