Both the St. Petersburg City Council and Pinellas County Commission have curiously re-scheduled their dates to vote on bond approvals for the new Rays stadium funding until after the upcoming election November 5.
The new dates where the bonds come up for vote are:
- St. Petersburg City Council – November 21
- Pinellas County Commission – November 19
Many of the county commissioners cited ‘bad optics’ in deciding to pause their vote… when the Rays haven’t even yet signaled a commitment to play in Pinellas through 2028 when the new stadium is set to be ready for play. And in City Council, two members (Ed Montanari and Deborah Figgs-Sanders) are in the midst of election campaigning. Note: Montanari was widely considered a swing vote when the stadium deal was approved back in July.
One commentor suggested the delays are politically motivated:
November 21, after the election? Whew, cover for Ed Montanari – the swing vote.
I would hope the delays are to have the time to regroup after the devasting financial impact of the hurricanes to the area, especially where the total costs are still unknown and being tallied.
Many know that through our advocacy group No Home Run, we fought for a better deal with Rays and their development partner Hines. We wanted better terms for the city and importantly, we wanted a deal that didn’t sink our area into 30 years of bond debt.
We have no way of knowing for sure if given the chance – and City Council and County Commission could do it all over again — would they have voted differently? We think that prudent financial stewards would have made a different choice. Especially knowing what we know now about the costs we’re confronting rebuilding and needed resiliency infrastructure projects to protect our residents in future storms.
The biggest question to leadership now though must be can St. Petersburg confidently say that it still has the ability to afford to borrow with interest almost $700 million and discount the Gas Plant land another $500 million for the Rays and their private developer Hines? (a combined market value more than $1 billion of the city’s resources).
Don’t we need now – more than ever before – that discretionary money to focus on the $5 billion needed to fix the sewers and mitigate flooding? And so much more?
Beaches and TDT
And can Pinellas County still confidently say that it can afford to borrow with interest almost $600 million and give up $200 million in new real estate taxes on a new stadium that does not pay taxes?
While Pinellas County has yet to calculate the estimated costs to tourism and the TDT… what we know already is concerning. The beaches have been badly eroded, and the sources for funding urgent beach renourishment still unknown.
ABC news reports that 30 years of beach renourishment work was wiped away by Helene alone, and they’re still working on new measurements after Milton.
My more optimistic side would hope that political ambitions play no part in the delays; and that the only reason Ed Montanari and Deborah Figgs-Sander wanted to put off the vote on the bonds is to not have to take a stand before the elections. But I’ve been let down before.
