Is it really a complication? It depends on how you look at it. :plain

 

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/11262571.htm

BASEBALL

 

Unwelcome amendments hinder stadium funding

 

A bill to help the Marlins build a new stadium gathers steam -- but also some unwelcome amendments -- in the Florida House of Representatives, while facing snags in the Senate.

 

BY LESLEY CLARK AND MARC CAPUTO

lclark@herald.com

 

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Marlins' effort to build a new ballpark with a $60 million state tax subsidy hit a potential new snag Tuesday: too much interest from lawmakers in the state House of Representatives.

 

The measure cleared its first House committee, but not before lawmakers loaded the bill with tax subsidies for spring training ballparks in Fort Lauderdale, Winter Haven and Sarasota -- cities that host baseball teams that the state of Arizona is said to be courting.

 

Tourism committee chairwoman Nancy Detert, a Venice Republican who added the spring training provision to the Marlins bill, said she wants to help the three facilities fend off Arizona's entreaties.

 

''I think the Marlins are better off with something that benefits people from all around the state,'' Detert said. ``I don't think it's a deal breaker for the Marlins.''

 

Miami-Dade County officials, who would own the stadium and collect rent from the team, said they were ''cautiously optimistic'' about prospects for the legislation. But Senate President Tom Lee and House Speaker Allan Bense have cautioned that loading up the measure with other tax exemptions could hurt the chances of the bill, which has a storied history of dying in the halls of the Capitol.

 

''We'll do whatever it takes to get the bill passed this year,'' said David Perez, the county's assistant director of intergovernmental affairs. ``This is probably the best chance we've had in years to get this passed.''

 

Still, Perez acknowledged that tacking the spring training subsidies onto the bill ``have the potential to raise some concerns.''

 

Yet, the measure is moving faster in the House than the Senate, where it remained bottled on Tuesday amid a suggestion by one backer to add drug testing of athletes to the mix.

 

''The fact that it's not moving at all over there is worrisome,'' said Miami Republican Rep. Juan Zapata.

 

``As long as something is moving over here we can find some way to work it, to find a compromise.''

 

New Port Richey Republican Sen. Mike Fasano said Tuesday he's withdrawing his cosponsorship of the bill and won't schedule it for a hearing in his committee unless the Marlins start random steroid testing or Lee forces his committee to hear the bill.

 

''If they want state help with a stadium, I think we should demand they or any other franchise perform annual or semi-annual drug testing in return,'' Fasano said.

 

A spokesman for the Marlins declined comment, but Lee said he wasn't interested in the drug testing issue, noting the Marlins legislation was ``complicated enough.''

 

Lee, who has referred to the Marlins negotiations tactics as ''terrorist,'' said Tuesday that he only just received an analysis purporting to show how much the money the stadium will generate in sales tax annually. He said he hadn't had a chance to crunch the numbers, and that the Marlins bill will be heard in a Senate committee within the next two weeks.

 

The analysis is critical because the county needs to convince lawmakers the ballpark will generate enough money to divert $2 million annually from the state to pay for it. Lee said he isn't sold on the idea that the ''rebate'' isn't a type of tax grant that actually costs the state money, especially when other stadiums are added.

 

''The more that gets added to the bill the more expensive it becomes and the more likely it is that it dies under its own weight,'' Lee said.

 

County and city officials are taking a different tack this year, pushing the bill as their own because the stadium will be owned by the government, not the team. ''For the past four years we've been trying, and every time we've been sent home and told to come together as a group and get local support,'' said Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera. ``This is the culmination of those efforts.''

 

Seven Florida teams -- including the Marlins' former owner -- have used subsidies. Once a team qualifies for the subsidy, it receives the money, regardless of whether it creates enough tax money to get a true rebate.

 

Lee had requested the financial analysis on March 9 when he met with county and city of Miami officials who are pushing the measure. County lobbyists said they delivered the analysis to Sen. Rudy Garcia, the other Senate sponsor of the bill, who said he didn't know he got it. The result: Lee only recently got the one-page analysis that the county says shows the stadium will generate between $7 million and $8 million in sales tax annually.

This is pretty normal. Although it does have the potential to ruin our bill, I think it should be fine.

I saw this today, it can either help pass it with voters that are on the fence or could swing them completely against us. Let's hope the fact that the money is being spread around outside of Miami will help get the vote outside of South Florida to the reps and senators whose constituents otherwise wouldn't care about the fate of a South Florida baseball club.

i'm so confused.

The plus - more support from other areas of the state.

 

The minus - the bill becomes a larger pill to swallow.

 

Hopefully this is the extent of the add ons. The suggestion to add steroid testing to the bill is simply absurd. Any legislation like this, if at all, should be at a national level to keep the playing field level.