Commissioners’ November 26 approval of the Braves deal came just 18 days after their first top-secret briefing on November 8. Commissioners gathered again privately on November 13—two days after the public announcement of the team’s relocation—to kick around the details, even as some Cobb residents pushed for a closer look at the deal’s fine print and for more time to consider its terms.

At both the November 8 and November 13 meetings, the five commissioners used a “revolving door” format so only two of them would be in the room at once. No quorum existed that way, officials contend, so open-meetings requirements did not apply.

Very quickly the deal was exposed for the ballooning costs to tax payers that it was always going to be, with Tim Lee trying to pretend that all of the promises made and the costs those incurred—while he created tax cuts that further drained the coffers—weren’t connected to the stadium.

The chickens have come home to roost, as they say. Or the transparent swamp politics of self-described “fiscal conservatives” have borne out, as everyone knew they would. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution explains:

Up to eight Cobb libraries could be closed or consolidated under a proposal to save about $2.6 million for the county. [...] The document also proposes eliminating all part-time positions, a total of 124 employees, which would affect library hours. Any closure or consolidation would be approved as part of the 2019 budget in July.

The public libraries? How can that be?

Today, Cobb is facing a $30 to $55 million budget shortfall after raiding $21 million in rainy-day funds to plug a gaping hole in the 2018 budget. Notwithstanding Lee’s generous predictions, County Finance Director Bill Volckmann said even though income from the stadium is on track to meet or even exceed expectations, “It’s not going to be a windfall.” [...] The public debt obligation on the stadium amounts to $16.4 million a year. Of that, $6.4 million is paid by Cobb residents out of the county’s general fund, while the remaining $10 million is funded through taxes and fees, including a countywide hotel/motel tax, a countywide rental car tax, a localized Cumberland hotel/motel tax, and localized Cumberland commercial property taxes. Cobb pays another $1.2 million for stadium operation and maintenance and about $1 million for police overtime and traffic management at games and events.

And that doesn’t account for the infrastructure projects started and/or stopped, that were part of the “deal.” Cobb County is taking an enormous financial hit right now, and social services and nonprofits are the first on the chopping block.

A teary-eyed father of a special-needs child. A mother of an opioid addict. A man who thinks the government shouldn’t fund nonprofits. Those were some of the 42 people who spoke to Cobb County commissioners at its Friday meeting before the board voted to pass a $405 million 2018 budget that cuts $1.1 million of grants to nonprofit organizations.