March 16, 2007
Marlins bill moves ahead
Stop me if you've heard this before: The Florida Marlins stadium bill is projected to have a better chance of legislative approval this year, after the Florida state senate finance and tax committee and the state house committee on economic development both voted in favor of giving the team $30 million worth of sales tax breaks. The state house was the holdup the last time a Marlins bill came to the floor, but new house speaker Marco Rubio, who is from West Miami, supports the stadium bill, notwithstanding that the state is already short a billion dollars in tax revenue that it was expecting.
Of course, even if they get their stadium, the Marlins still need a place to build it. The Orange Bowl site is still considered the front-runner, though some legislators from Broward and Palm Beach Counties are now griping that that would make for too long a drive for fans living north of Miami.
As for why the state should be handing over a $2 million a year tax break to the Marlins when they already got one once, Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess warned the legislative committees that "if the Marlins don't have anything to move to by 2011 ... they won't be in the state." (LATE NOTE: They apparently won't be in San Antonio either, though.) Miami officials, meanwhile, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that they estimate a new stadium "could generate up to $9 million a year in new sales tax revenue for the state" - a figure that, FoS reader Jonathan Judd points out, at a 6% state sales tax rate would imply $150 million a year in new spending in the state. That's an awful lot of people flying into Miami just to see Reggie Abercrombie.
