Rays Fret But Sketchy Stadium Subsidies Hammer Taxpayers With Massive Debt

The fiscal deception keeps looming as the Rays threaten to look at "alternatives" if Hillsborough County refuses their funding demands for a new stadium.

The irresponsibility of subsidizing the Rays Billionaires is enormous. Taxpayers will get sucker punched at the Local, State and Federal levels and hammered with massive amounts of debt. 

                                The Rays Proposal To Fund New Stadium                                                          Rays get your $ NOW, Taxpayers Get Debt For Decades                                   

The Rays want your local CIT funds, the local Stadium CRA property tax funds and your federal HUD money - all to go into their coffers. They want your government owned land and for you as a State taxpayer to pay to relocate HCC.

The Rays get massive amounts of your tax dollars upfront and You the Taxpayer gets massive amounts of DEBT for decades. 

DEBT IS SUNK COSTS!

The Stadium fiscal egregiousness continues. 

At the February 24, 2024 CIT Workshop, Hillsborough County staff presented revenue projections of a renewed CIT tax. The County projected a first year revenue baseline of $200 MILLION with a growth rate of 3% per year over the term of the renewal tax.

However, in 2024 sales tax was still being collected on commercial leases. 

Last year the State legislature totally eliminated sales tax on commercial leases. That alone reduces the original projected baseline of a renewed CIT tax by at least 8-9%, from $200M to approximately $184M. 

Suddenly when the District Rays county commissioner Ken Hagan threw an agenda item on at the last minute for the 2/4/2026 BOCC meeting, Hagan began claiming there was going to be "Surplus" CIT revenue. Hagan began pushing that a CIT "Surplus", an amount over the "initial" (but incorrect) $200M revenue forecast, could fund the Rays stadium.

Problem is there is NO surplus. 

The baseline revenue's been reduced. Even with a higher growth rate of 3.7% (the Rays wanted 4%), the CIT revenue expected to be collected is already allocated. No such "Surplus" claim had ever been made before because such claim is vaporware.

Apparently, Hagan and/or the County either failed to inform the Rays of the revenue projection reduction, or they did and the Rays ignored it. The Rays continue using the inflated revenue baseline in their sales pitch.

No one gave Ken Hagan the authority to start claiming there was a CIT "Surplus".  Hagan has zero authority to tell the Rays there are "Surplus" CIT funds available for a new Stadium.

The County admitted at the 4/16/2026 CIT Workshop that CIT revenues have declined.

Before elimination of sales tax on commercial leases, CIT revenues in FY2025 were less than FY2024.

FY2026 CIT revenues are less than during same time FY2025. And the FY2026 decline is greater than the 8-9% from the commercial lease sales tax elimination.

Sales tax are most vulnerable to economic downturns. Massive debt is a huge taxpayer burden. When the sales tax tanks, the bondholders have priority and must be paid first.

What happens if Florida eliminates property taxes from homesteaded property? The Stadium District CRA revenue would tank and not be able to cover its debt repayment. Has Ken Hagan or the County thought thru that "what if"?

The proposed Rays Stadium Subsidy Scam is selling snake oil to the taxpayers. 

There is NO CIT "Surplus".  The sketchy stadium finances are riddled with wrong information, too many unknowns and debt, debt and more debt that will hammer taxpayers for decades. 

And Taxpayers Beware! 

When projects promised cannot be funded, watch for the County to put a new tax hike referendum on the 2028 ballot.

Contact the county commissioners and tell them to reject the proposed Sketchy Stadium Subsidy Scam now because it will burden taxpayers for decades.