MARIETTA - Cobb's $40 million parks bond program has been placed on hold for 90 days because of lagging revenues, according to county executives.

Bob Ash, the county's director of public services, sent a letter to owners of the 29 properties that the county was considering purchasing with the parks bond money. The Nov. 17 letter states that site visits by Cobb Commissioners "and subsequent discussions on land purchases have been placed on hold for a 90-day period."

Ash wrote that it is "necessary for the board to review the bond financing" in reference to the $40 million the county would raise by issuing bonds to buy park property. The $40 million that voters agreed to raise through a bond issuance does not include the interest costs, county spokesman Robert Quigley said.

Ash and county manager David Hankerson consulted with commissioners before sending the letters, Quigley said.

Chairman Sam Olens did not have an estimate of how much the program would cost the county out-of-pocket.

"The interest rate would be very low," he said in an e-mail, "but the prior growth assumptions have changed. The recession has reduced the tax digest."

Quigley added that under House Bill 233, passed earlier this year, "no counties in Georgia can increase the value of the tax digest. That means our primary revenue source, property taxes, cannot increase."

While things may improve before the 90-day period, Quigley also acknowledged that in the other extreme, the county's financial situation could mean the parks bond program is dissolved.

"We are slowing the process down so that the county can make a full assessment of the impact of the new bonds on the budget," he said.

Commissioners were scheduled to tour some of the potential parcels on Wednesday, but that was canceled.

The 29 parcels were recommended to the commissioners on Oct. 26 by the Parks Bond Citizens Advisory Committee, made up of 15 residents who narrowed the list down from 340 nominated parcels.

In November 2008, an overwhelming majority of Cobb voters - 65 percent - agreed to a second, $40 million parks bond. The first parks bond was passed in 2006.