But the estimated price tag for the project: nearly $100 million!

WHO’S PAYING FOR IT

To put it simply: YOU, the Johns Creek taxpayer. We’ll be funding this project through:

Raised property taxes
Pilfering of the city’s reserve funds
Diverting money away from public safety and incomplete capital projects

It’s absolutely unacceptable to take money away from public safety to fund this project. Our first responders are depending on these funds for critical updates to their infrastructure. We CAN’T afford to allow our Police and Fire Departments to fall behind the rest of North Fulton.

The reserve funds were set aside to be the city’s “rainy day” fund. It’s supposed to be for NEEDS, not WANTS. Spending it to build a shiny new toy is the height of fiscal irresponsibility.

Funding for the project relies on FUTURE assumed Johns Creek surplus money. To make matters worse, the City’s own projections have the Performing Arts Center as a money loser. Mayor John Bradberry was quoted as saying “We know that this is probably never going to break even. In other words, we will be MORTGAGING the future of Johns Creek to pay for a performing arts center that we don’t need.

WHY DON’T WE NEED IT?

Sandy Springs and Forsyth County have both opened performing arts centers in the recent past.

Both are only a short drive from Johns Creek. They are easily accessible to Johns Creek residents and will compete with the Johns Creek PAC for bookings and community support.
Both have struggled to book shows and performances, going unused most nights.
Both have been unable to sell their naming rights (a key provision of Johns Creek’s proposal that will supposedly help our PAC to become profitable).

In addition to the two PAC’s in our immediate area, Johns Creek already has two amphitheaters that are scarcely used.

If these existing facilities are struggling to be viable, why would we spend millions to add another competing facility?

This performing arts center is a wildly irresponsible political vanity project. It’s poorly planned, recklessly funded, and entirely unnecessary. It exists for only one reason: because politicians believe they are entitled to do whatever they want with your tax dollars.

But we can still stop it: beginning October 14, Vote NO on the Johns Creek Performing Arts Center bond.