Late in game, state Senators balk at Marlins

[wanks1212]

TALLAHASSEE ? The Florida Marlins need a ninth-inning rally.

 

If the two-time world champions are going to catch approval this week for a $60 million state tax subsidy to build a baseball-only ballpark in Miami, they'll have to quickly convince a lot of state legislators they're not just feeding at the government trough.

 

"It's the old saying: Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered," said Sen. Skip Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale. "Unfortunately, I think the Marlins are going to get slaughtered with the rest of the hogs."

 

A lot of legislators in recent days have been using the same homespun adage to dismiss the team's chances of scoring a political victory late in the 2005 legislative session. They say it sums up their disgust with how the stadium deal has been presented to them: All or nothing.

 

Legislators say they have been given an unpleasant choice: either accept a multimillion-dollar package of giveaways to sports complexes around the state or get blamed for letting a Marlins stadium deal again fall through the cracks.

 

Instead of bringing to the floor of the House and Senate a stand-alone measure on the Marlins stadium, the team's supporters, led by City of Miami and Miami-Dade County officials, gambled.

 

Under a plan crafted by the team's lobbyists and Rep. Marco Rubio, the Miami Republican who is in line to be the next House speaker, the proposal to spend $2 million a year of state taxes for the next 30 years on the Marlins was packaged with a host of unrelated financial requests for sports stadiums and convention centers around the state.

 

Senate President Tom Lee and other key Republicans said Friday night that while the strategy helped move the bill through the House, it won't work in a more skeptical Senate.

 

"I would never say never, but I'm going to say almost never," Lee said. "With the limitations we have in our [budget] and all the priorities left to be funded, and with this [sports stadium package] having been loaded up with all these teams ... I just don't see us having the votes."

 

The sweeping proposal won easy House approval, on a 90-26 vote. It included not just the Marlins sales tax subsidy but also millions for four spring training centers, including the Baltimore Orioles' in Fort Lauderdale, and $30 million to lure a NASCAR Hall of Fame to Daytona Beach. The package also included incentives to help the Orlando Magic basketball team and money for cities and counties to refurbish convention centers around the state.

 

The idea, proponents said, was to sweeten the Marlins deal with money that would get sprinkled in nearly every corner of the state.

 

Even legislators with a penchant for being fiscal conservatives couldn't resist larding up the bill. On the day the bill came to the House floor, House budget chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart, used it to help out his hometown of Stuart, adding money to repay the local government for improvements at Tradition Field in Stuart.

 

But senators say the feeding frenzy in the House over the bill backfired.

 

"Bundled up like that, they thought they could force the Senate to swallow the whole thing whole," said Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville. "But packaged together, I don't think there's any appetite for that."

 

Sen. Rudy Garcia, a big supporter of the Marlins proposal, was even more direct about it on Friday.

 

"It was a mistake," the Miami Republican said.

 

Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, another Miami Republican in support of the stadium deal, still holds out hope that a Marlins bill still in Senate committee, separate from the other stadium requests, could come up for a vote. But even that bill has long odds. At best, he said, 26 of the 40 state senators, he predicted, are against the proposal.

 

While Gov. Jeb Bush said last week that the legislation deserves a "fair hearing" in the Senate, there are other problems with trying to get a Marlins bill out of the Legislature this session.

 

Lee and others have criticized supporters for wanting to grant a second sales tax rebate to the baseball team. Former team owner Wayne Huizenga got a rebate in the mid 1990s. Critics also say players' million-dollar salaries and team owners' earnings are reasons why public tax monies shouldn't be used.

 

 

 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-fma...la-sports-front

[Boog Sciambi]

i hate this f***ing state

[Guest Juanky]

Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, another Miami Republican in support of the stadium deal, still holds out hope that a Marlins bill still in Senate committee, separate from the other stadium requests, could come up for a vote. But even that bill has long odds. At best, he said, 26 of the 40 state senators, he predicted, are against the proposal.

 

Um, supporter MY ASS

 

"I would never say never, but I'm going to say almost never," Lee said. "With the limitations we have in our [budget] and all the priorities left to be funded, and with this [sports stadium package] having been loaded up with all these teams ... I just don't see us having the votes."

 

Because you'll be one of the votes against!

[Hollyberry]

:crying

 

I guess they really do care about people in Florida-

 

 

Well, next year my dad said the speaker of the house is going to be in Miami.. Hopefully we will get it done then.. if we dont. My life is over :crying

[MarlinGuru]

There's always the Astros.

[Hollyberry]

Why are we the only team who cant get a new stadium? :crying

[prinmemito]

I wouldn't announce this deal dead quite yet. They only quoted a few senators there. And, they were saying this thing just before the House approved it. It's not dead until it's declared dead. I am still optimistic. Let's hope the Orange county delegation helps us out, like Cape said.

[Madman81]

Florida sucks.

[prinmemito]

Also please remember that this is the Sentinel. They have been against this deal from the beginning. If it were the Miami Herald I might be more nervous because they actually endorsed it (even though they were against it for a while).

[CapeFish]

Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, another Miami Republican in support of the stadium deal, still holds out hope that a Marlins bill still in Senate committee, separate from the other stadium requests, could come up for a vote. But even that bill has long odds. At best, he said, 26 of the 40 state senators, he predicted, are against the proposal.

 

I think the Sentinel got de la Portilla confused with Villalobos. If not, then it would mean de la Portilla is switching his vote.

 

The Senate Bill that has gone through committee has a better chance of passing. If his count of 14 senators supporting it is true, they could try to sway 6 more to vote for it. If it passes in the Senate, the house would then get it and approve it.

 

This bill is the last hope right now in Tallahassee. This is the important bill.

 

SB 1306 is the bill introduced by Sen. Garcia which is headed to the Ways and Means for a vote. I expect it to pass committee.

[Hollyberry]

What senators should I focus on the most?

[Hollyberry]

Okay... This is totally dumb and random :lol

 

A ford commercial said there are 17 million people in Florida.. so what happens if everyone gives 5-15 dollar donation for the stadium :confused It could work :lol