County Shows Taxpayers The Rays Stadium Shiny Hood - Taxpayers Lift Hood And Find a Dirty Greasy Slimy Engine With Missing Parts

Taxpayers look under the Shiny Hood

The public gets shown the Rays Stadium's Shiny Hood. 

When Taxpayers Lift the Shiny Hood, they find a Dirty Greasy Slimy Engine with Missing Parts.

Yet last week Hillsborough County commissioners (5-2) and Tampa city council (4-3) voted to approve the Ray's Stadium Shiny Hood Memorandum of Demands. 

County Commissioners Myers, Cohen, Boles and Miller asked NO questions about what's under the Ray's Stadium Shiny Hood. They condescendingly said the Stadium's Shiny Hood was enough to approve moving the Rays Memorandum of Demand along for "further negotiating" 

They were bluffing. The Rays "Kingpin Ken" called it a "Monumental Day" because he knew....

Further negotiating will not come.

Immediately after their Memorandum of Demand was approved, the Rays publicly claimed they are done negotiating. They will not contribute a dime more to their New Stadium.

The only thing left is for the County and Tampa to ram the Rays Stadium Shiny Hood through the Process ASAP.

Under the Rays Stadium Shiny Hood, we find this dirt:

• Rays confiscate 85% of CIT funds from the County and 61% from Tampa in the First year of the Tax
• Rays confiscate 71% of CIT funds from the County and 53% from Tampa over the first FOUR years of the Tax

This is basic information under the Rays Stadium Shiny Hood that County staff, Hagan, Myers, Boles & Miller are hiding from the public.  They know it would spark even more outrage, especially from voters who were told the CIT would NOT fund any New Stadium.

Lifting the Shiny Hood, we find a lot of grime, grease and missing major parts that need major repair work.

Major part missing: Hillsborough County and Tampa refuse to provide the opportunity costs of pushing at least $1.5 BILLION taxpayer dollars (includes debt cost) to the Rays for a New Stadium. Adding in those costs will destroy the fairy dust and unicorn "economic development" narrative.

Some grime: Miller confused the Rays Stadium with the Bucs Stadium. The Bucs Stadium was funded by specifically placing that funding question on the ballot in 1996 that was passed. She cannot equate the two without asking that the Rays Stadium funding be placed on the 2026 ballot and let the people vote.

Very greasy: The Rays Public-Private Partnership is being created by 5 county commissioners who will allow:

• The Rays to jump to the head of the line to confiscate your CIT funds that voters were promised would NOT be used for any New Stadium
• The Rays to raid $103 MILLION of the County's Cash Reserves that Rays "Kingpin Ken" Hagan lectured could never be touched and never be used to fund the County's neglected roads. Roads are an "Essential Core Function of Local Government aka a NEED" but suddenly it's A-OK to raid them for a New Stadium that is "NOT an Essential Core Function of Local Government aka a WANT".
• The Rays to be handed a massive amount of Tourist Taxes Upfront that is Bonded while Taxpayers get hundreds of millions of dollars of debt costs for decades 
• The Rays to get back ALL - dollar for dollar - the Stadium District CRA property taxes that exceeds the debt service which is totally unfair to the rest of the County's taxpayers.
• County/Cit to get No Naming Rights Revenue or an Equity Stake to help protect Taxpayers who are being forced without a referendum vote to UPFRONT pay for about half the Stadium cost and incur debt for decades.

We'll help answer the following Missing Parts that Myers, Cohen, Boles and Miller refused to ask about:

1. What would happen when the State eliminates/reduces property taxes on homesteaded property? 

Easy Answer: The Bad Deal totally falls apart.   

2. The Rays get "their" tax dollars UPFRONT so what happens during economic downturns over the next 15 years and the CIT and Tourist Tax tank? 

 Answer: Bondholders must be paid FIRST, projects promised voters in 2024 delayed or ignored, and delayed projects will cost taxpayers more with inflation (That happened when the last 20 years of 1996 CIT were bonded out in 2007 and the Big Recession hit in 2008). Roads and infrastructure will continue to be neglected.

3. What happens to the projects promised to voters in 2024 simply due to the elimination of sales tax on commercial leases? Answer: Revenue will be at least 8-10% less and with the Rays grabbing "their" share UPFRONT, it will negatively impact those projects.

4. What CIT revenue growth is actually being used with funding the New Stadium? 

Answer: The County has thrown out CIT revenue growth rates like they are darts on a dart board. CIT growth rates have ranged from 3% (what voters were told in 2024) to 3.6% claimed earlier this year after the commercial lease sales tax was eliminated to 4.1% which the Rays claimed and now being used by the County to an absurd 6.1%  

The public has no idea what the actual numbers are under the Rays Stadium Shiny Hood. 

It appears the County throws out whatever growth rate they need at the time for whatever number they are looking for. Did they mislead voters in 2024? Were they intentionally trying to create a slush fund?

Hillsborough County has already lost 2 lawsuits related to misleading voters related to referendums. Did they learn anything?

The Rays Stadium Shiny Hood of Demands have been exposed. The engine under that Hood is Dirty, Greasy Slimy and Missing Major Parts.

The Rays were never going to negotiate further. They got 5 county commissioners and 4 Tampa city council members to approve the Rays Demands by looking at their Stadium Shiny Hood. That's all they wanted.

What was approved last week wasn't to continue negotiating but to Continue the Process to ram the Rays Stadium Shiny Hood Bad Deal through ASAP.

The Taxpayers get stuck with the Dirty, Greasy, Slimy Engine under the Rays Stadium Shiny Hood that's Missing Parts and needs Major Repairs.

Not a good week for Myers, Cohen, Boles and Miller. They  either got hoodwinked or were all in on the Rays Stadium Shiny Hood Charade.

Commissioners Get Played By The Rays or Just Bow Down to the Rays "Kingpin Ken"?

Today's Tampa Bay Times Headline

Arrogance drips off the Rays CEO as he admits the Rays were never going to further negotiate and their current Memorandum of Demand Bad Deal is it - take it or leave it.

Local media knew it as local news headlines claimed the County had approved the MOU like it's a done deal.

With this headline being the most laughable:

The Rays and their "Kingpin Ken" used the Non-Binding" (Wink Wink Nod Nod) Memorandum of Demand to flush out and bind four other commissioners to move the Bad Deal forward.

This is why the Rays "Kingpin Ken" wanted to ram a vote through on the Sketchy Stadium Subsidy Scheme that has too little transparency, too many questions and too many issues unresolved.

Disregarding Rays "Kingpin Ken" who will do and say anything for a new taxpayer funded Rays Stadium, the other four commissioners - Myers, Cohen, Boles and Miller - gave up the County's only leverage to negotiate a better deal and an equity stake.

Myers, Cohen, Boles and Miller voted to approve the Rays Memorandum of Demand that allows the Rays to jump to the head of the line and loot the County's CIT renewal funds Upfront - before a dime of those funds are used for promised road and infrastructure projects.

Myers, Cohen, Boles and Miller voted to approve the Rays confiscating $103 MILLION of Cash Reserves - the rainy day fund that "Kingpin Ken" always claimed could never be used for roads - an "essential core function of government" as Boles claimed when he campaigned in 2024.

But the Rays "Kingpin Ken" is A-OK with the Rays taking those Reserves just as Hurricane season is to begin.

All those claims by Myers, Cohen, Boles and Miller that this was to just keep the negotiations appears to have been all a Ruse.

 

The Rays say their Demand for the County''s CIT funds, Property Taxes, Cash Reserves, Tourist Taxes and the forcing of massive Debt on taxpayers for decades is the End All Deal and it will not change.

We fully expected Rays "Kingpin Ken" to allow such fiscal malfeasance. But Myers, Cohen, Boles and Miller should have said NO and sent the Rays Demand Memo back to the drawing board.

Bad policies, especially those negotiated behind closed doors with little transparency and lots of questions unanswered, should be stopped ASAP not pushed forward.

Seems eerily similar to "We have to pass the [Obamacare} bill so that you can find out what is in it".....

Two years ago a super majority of Hillsborough County commissioners, including Ken Hagan, promised voters in 2024 that NO CIT renewal funds would be used to fund ANY NEW Stadium.

Two years later on May 20, 2026 BOCC a super majority of Hillsborough County commissioners - Hagan, Myers, Cohen, Boles and Miller - violated that promise. 

The Bad Deal also violates the 2024 campaign commitments made by Boles and Miller who have already filed to run again in 2028.

Were Myers, Cohen, Boles and Miller played by the Rays and "Kingpin Ken". If so that is incompetence and bad judgment reflecting poor governance.

Were Myers, Cohen, Boles and Miller just bowing down to the Rays "Kingpin Ken" for whatever reason? If so, that is unethical governance that reeks of impropriety.

The Rays threw their Memorandum of Demand to the County and the City to get approved ASAP knowing full well they were done with negotiating about the public funding. 

Trust has been destroyed!