Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Atlanta Shenanigans: Weather Channel Following Braves' Subsidy Plan

Neil deMause notes The Weather Channel may follow in the Atlanta Braves' footsteps and ink a subsidy deal in Cobb County:
The Marietta Daily Journal reports that these could include “significant” tax breaks for the Weather Channel agreeing to stay in town.

That sounds bad, and it is, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Kyle Wingfield notes that at least the Weather Channel is talking about adding about 250 jobs at an average salary of $75,000. The Braves, meanwhile, are promising 4,014 jobs (some at projects surrounding the stadium) for a total payroll of $61 million, which is an average salary of … $15,000? Clearly those aren’t full-time jobs, which makes sense, since most baseball jobs aren’t.

Which means if you pro-rate it to maybe 1,500 full-time equivalent jobs, then Cobb is looking at shelling out at least $200,000 per job, which is just dismal. But then, “dismal” is increasingly looking like Cobb’s middle name.
So who else in Atlanta wants them some Cobb Co. tax dollars?  Home Depot?  Coca-Cola?  The Varsity?

1 comment:

  1. What good for the Brave$ should be good for NBCUniversal, and investment firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital who own TWC.
    Those with the connections have been doing this for decades regardless of who's in power and shows no signs of ending anytime soon.
    Stu hasn't found the right pol to influence yet.

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