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| St. Louis Federal Reserve |
Lots of curve balls hitting as the Rays June 1 deadline looms, including the taxpayer's subsidy for a new Rays stadium has doubled to over $2 BILLION.
And probably higher.
Bonds will be issued to fund a new stadium. None of the financial analysis presented includes the interest and debt costs the taxpayers will be forced to pay the bondholders. That curve ball adds hundreds of millions of dollars to the taxpayer's bill.
Vulnerable sales tax revenues tank first when there's an economic downturn.
It's not Hillsborough County's first rodeo dealing with tanking CIT tax revenues while enriching bondholders. It happened in 2007 when Ken Hagan pushed the then commissioners to bond out the last 20 years of the 1996 CIT funds and the big recession hit in 2008.
Remember voters were told in 1996 those funds would NOT be bonded out but spent in 10 year increments on roads and new infrastructure.
CIT revenues tanked in 2008 and taxpayers were forced to pay the bondholders first instead of funding projects they were promised.
That was the beginning of the end of Hillsborough County properly funding roads. No wonder almost 20 years later, county roads are such a mess.
Voters were told specifically by super majority of county commissioners in 2024, including Ken Hagan, that the renewed CIT funds would NOT be used for any NEW stadium.
Deja Vu? Another curve ball now hitting the taxpayers in the face.
Remember the 2018 All for Transportation tax hike referendum ballot language was ruled Unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court. The 2022 All for Transportation 2.0 tax hike referendum ballot language was ruled misleading by a District Court judge. It was allowed to remain on the ballot when appealed by the County, and thankfully defeated at the ballot box.
Remember voters were told in 1996 those funds would NOT be bonded out but spent in 10 year increments on roads and new infrastructure.
CIT revenues tanked in 2008 and taxpayers were forced to pay the bondholders first instead of funding projects they were promised.
That was the beginning of the end of Hillsborough County properly funding roads. No wonder almost 20 years later, county roads are such a mess.
Voters were told specifically by super majority of county commissioners in 2024, including Ken Hagan, that the renewed CIT funds would NOT be used for any NEW stadium.
Remember the 2018 All for Transportation tax hike referendum ballot language was ruled Unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court. The 2022 All for Transportation 2.0 tax hike referendum ballot language was ruled misleading by a District Court judge. It was allowed to remain on the ballot when appealed by the County, and thankfully defeated at the ballot box.
More curve balls will hit the taxpayers in the face if lawsuits are filed against the County regarding the 2024 CIT renewal referendum if commissioners vote to use CIT for the Rays stadium.
Another curve ball is what are the opportunity costs of subsidizing a stadium benefiting the city of Tampa that neglects the rest of Hillsborough County? Does anyone know? What economic growth would occur more fairly throughout the entire county if taxpayers were not handing Billions to the Tampa centric Billionaires? Why hasn't such analysis been done and publicly presented?
A "Stadium District" CRA will be created that forces the increase in property tax revenues to stay in the District. This is unfair to the rest of the County and city of Tampa taxpayers - because those funds would normally be distributed more fairly to benefit those throughout the County and city of Tampa. CRA's are known for corruption and benefiting crony donors and another curve ball that hits taxpayers in the face.
The State legislature eliminated sales tax for commercial leases effective 10/1/2025. At the Stadium workshop this month, the County reduced the CIT revenue estimates by 8% that was estimated to come from commercial leases, stated the economy had slowed but increased the CIT revenue growth rate to 3.7%....at the request of the Rays who actually wanted to show a 4% growth rate.
The irony in all the years of Ken Hagan claiming the County must protect its Reserves to protect its credit rating.
And this is the arrogance of Ken Hagan, who's been pursuing a new Rays stadium since 2010, treats the taxpayers:
This Stadium deal is selling Snake Oil.
Another curve ball is what are the opportunity costs of subsidizing a stadium benefiting the city of Tampa that neglects the rest of Hillsborough County? Does anyone know? What economic growth would occur more fairly throughout the entire county if taxpayers were not handing Billions to the Tampa centric Billionaires? Why hasn't such analysis been done and publicly presented?
The HCC land has not been appraised. No one has told taxpayers what it will cost to move HCC to a new location. We're also all state taxpayers so we'll be paying for all those costs too. There's no "free" lunch as another curve ball hits the taxpayers in the face.
A "Stadium District" CRA will be created that forces the increase in property tax revenues to stay in the District. This is unfair to the rest of the County and city of Tampa taxpayers - because those funds would normally be distributed more fairly to benefit those throughout the County and city of Tampa. CRA's are known for corruption and benefiting crony donors and another curve ball that hits taxpayers in the face.
The touted economic benefits of publicly funding sports stadiums is selling snake oil.
From the St. Louis Federal Reserve:
In spite of all of these economic arguments, economists generally oppose subsidizing professional sports stadiums. When surveyed, 86 percent of economists agreed that “local and state governments in the U.S. should eliminate subsidies to professional sports franchises.”
They [Economists] often stress that estimations of the economic impact of sports stadiums are exaggerated because they fail to recognize opportunity costs. Consumers who spend money on sporting events would likely spend the money on other forms of entertainment, which has a similar economic impact. Rather than subsidizing sports stadiums, governments could finance other projects such as infrastructure or education that have the potential to increase productivity and promote economic growth.
Hillsborough County stated in 2024 that a renewed CIT half percent sales tax would generate $200M in the first year and grow 3% per year over the life of the tax. At that time sales tax was still being collected for commercial leases.
The State legislature eliminated sales tax for commercial leases effective 10/1/2025. At the Stadium workshop this month, the County reduced the CIT revenue estimates by 8% that was estimated to come from commercial leases, stated the economy had slowed but increased the CIT revenue growth rate to 3.7%....at the request of the Rays who actually wanted to show a 4% growth rate.
The end game of lower CIT revenue, even with a higher projected growth, is there is NO CIT surplus. Why didn't the County tell the Rays the $200M initial baseline revenue was wrong? Claiming there will be a CIT surplus is not true and another curve ball hitting the taxpayers in the face.
The most alarming curve ball presented at the Stadium Workshop was for the Rays to loot the County's Cash Reserves. This has never been discussed publicly before and apparently astonished some commissioners.
The irony in all the years of Ken Hagan claiming the County must protect its Reserves to protect its credit rating.
Unless the Rays get to loot them....
The County recently told the Rays they cannot "complete the deal" by the Rays June 1 dateline due to their process to finalize takes 60-90 days.
The Rays are still demanding a vote by the commissioners to approve the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in May.
But public opinion opposes the use of taxpayer funds to build a new Rays stadium and subsidize development to enrich the Rays Billionaire owners.
The county also wants the Rays to cover a $75 million shortfall in public funding outlined during the workshop.The taxpayer costs have doubled, the deal is still sketchy with too many unknowns and the costly curve balls keep coming to hit the taxpayers in the face.
“I say somewhat jokingly, on a $2.3 billion project, that’s almost a rounding error,” Hagan told WDAE.
This Stadium deal is selling Snake Oil.
And the real joke will be on taxpayers stuck funding another Billionaire's stadium black hole if the Rays Stadium Subsidy Scam is not stopped now.
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