Stadium funding faces repeal

State prepares for budget shortfalls

No Florida sports stadium or venue ever got a dime from a multimillion-dollar state program, and now the money could boost the state’s accounts by $13 million this year.

State Sen. Tom Lee, R-Thonotosassa, has filed a bill that would eliminate the pot of money designated for stadium upgrades.

“It was so obnoxious watching the thing develop because what started out as an idea that would create a process that would allow the Legislature to make an informed decision got twisted backward to fit the economic model of the sports teams that wanted the money,” Lee said.

State government economic forecasters have predicted budget shortfalls totaling more than $3 billion over the next two years. Legislators will try to balance spending more on higher education and protecting Lake Okeechobee with not raising taxes in the session starting in March. Money from the stadium program isn’t earmarked and would be added to the general revenue accounts, Lee said.

Lawmakers created the sports stadium program in 2014. It offers $13 million per year to sports franchises for stadium upgrades, though no team or stadium

could get more than $3 million in a year. But large projects could be spaced out over up to 30 years, so a team could have gotten $90 million in taxpayer money to help upgrade or build stadiums.

The only proposal for money this year is from Buccaneers Football Stadium Limited Partnership for Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The partnership is seeking $1 million a year, for at least 10 years.

The program was created because of a push for tax credits and other economic incentives by Florida’s professional sports franchises, including the Miami Dolphins, who at the time were looking at stadium improvements that would cost almost half a billion dollars. The idea was that proposals for state money would go through the state Department of Economic Opportunity, which would vet them to see whether they offered a good return on investment.

The program didn’t work out that way.

In 2015, the department simply approved every stadium offer and passed them on for legislative approval, despite many legislators saying the law required the agency to rank the proposals.

Lawmakers reviewed proposals from Dolphins Stadium, the Daytona International Speedway, EverBank Field in Jacksonville and Orlando’s professional soccer team, which wanted to build a new stadium partly with state funds. With no recommendations from the department, the legislators opted to give money to no one.

Last session, the Legislature refused Gov. Rick Scott’s request for $250 million for economic incentives to be doled out by Enterprise Florida, the state’s public-private economic development agency.

Such largesse on the part of state government is seen as a job creation machine by Scott, but that philosophy has run into opposition by legislative leaders such as House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, who call the spending “corporate welfare.”

“Florida has the tax environment, the weather and the fans to support multiple sports franchises without raiding taxpayer pockets,” Corcoran said in a prepared statement supporting Lee’s legislation. “Those who own the game should not be able to take money from those who don’t attend the game.”

The stadium program does have its supporters. The program was initially pushed by state Sen. Jack Latvala, RClearwater, who is now the Senate Appropriations Chairman.

“This is not a giveaway of any dollars,” Latvala told the News Service of Florida. “The only dollars that we would give back, in any way shape or form, are the tax dollars that are created by whatever improvement they make.”