Editor’s note: This letter is in response to former Gov. Zell Miller’s Dec. 12 guest column titled “New stadium a solid investment.”



EDITOR:



Zell Miller comes out of retirement to make an impassioned plea for us to spend our shrinking tax dollars to help pay for a new playground for the wealthiest people in our state. Miller spent a great deal of effort to lay out his vision of how a hotel-motel tax will enrich investors of a new sports arena.

Let’s keep in mind that more than 50 percent of rural Georgian children qualify for free or reduced priced lunches. In other words, they live in poverty. Let’s not forget that our state’s high school graduation rate, at 67 percent, is one of the worst in the nation.

Our unemployment rate is 10th worst in the nation. There are many important challenges that lay before us.

We have a functional stadium [the 20-year-old Georgia Dome], but if it’s not good enough, then the investors who have profited from it should be the ones to fund its replacement. Shouldn’t our imaginations and money be focused on matters worthy of our best efforts?



Don McAdam

Sandy Springs