Alameda County says it won’t even think about A’s tax kickback district until fall, [record scratch sound]

One of the tricks to extracting stadium subsidies for a sports team owner — or any corporate executive, really, but this site is about sports teams because way back in the day Joanna Cagan and I decided “corporate welfare” was too big an issue to cover in one book — is figuring out which level of government to hit up for money. In the U.S., you generally have at least three options: city, county, and state governments, which you can often cycle between to see which one will give you the best deal. Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad, for example, spent a solid decade going back and forth between the three levels of government in Minneapolis, before landing on a deal that only required four out of seven county commissioners to vote to spend county money, while the state legislature just had to okay it by a bare majority but not supply any actual cash.

(That story is in the book, by the way. For similar stories about non-sports entities, you’ll want to check out Greg LeRoy’s book.)

All this is complicated if you need approval from two different jurisdictions that would both have to cough up subsidies for a stadium or arena plan. So if you’re, say, the Oakland A’s, and you’re proposing an $855 million tax kickback that would come out of both city and county coffers, you’ll definitely want to be sure you have both levels on government on board before oh whoops:

Following a long and contentious meeting Tuesday, [Alameda County] supervisors said they won’t even schedule a vote until September on Oakland’s request that the county support the idea of forming a tax district to finance the infrastructure needed for a ballpark and the mixed-use development that eventually will surround it…

County supervisors sharply rebuked the city for not inviting them to the discussion sooner, noting that two weeks is not enough time to analyze the complicated financing plan.

After years of not being “brought to the table,” board Chairman Keith Carson said, “now we’re being told to decide in 20 days.”

Well, that’s a fly in the ointment! A’s president Dave Kaval has been insisting that the city of Oakland sign a non-binding term sheet on July 20, and making ostentatious trips out of town to make sure everyone knows he has a space laser could try to move the team if he doesn’t get his way, but it won’t mean much if the county isn’t on board.

Kaval’s stadium plan, as discussed here before, would involve siphoning off all property taxes above those collected now in a pair of “infrastructure financing districts” (better known nationally as tax increment financing, or TIF, districts) covering a huge swath of downtown Oakland:

The smaller district, which covers just the area A’s owner John Fisher wants to develop, is projected to generate $495 million worth of tax revenue that would go to the team; the larger one would kick in another $360 million. (Presumably this is because more new development, and so more new property taxes, would be concentrated in the smaller district; I haven’t seen any details on what happens to the funding stream if Fisher stops building once he’s done with the stadium, which his term sheet would allow him to do.)

The smaller district is the one the county would be losing tax revenue from. According to the East Bay Times’ report, “Oakland’s consultant” (not named) has estimate that the county would bring in more new tax revenue from the district than it loses to Fisher, clearing about $6.3 million a year. (No word on whether this accounts for development there cannibalizing development that would otherwise take place elsewhere in Alameda County, which is a thing that has come up in other cities.) As for the bigger, city-only tax district, Oakland Assistant City Administrator Betsy Lake said on Tuesday night that it doesn’t seem to be “fiscally responsible,” which is city administratorese for you want us give you all the taxes from what, now?

Kaval declined to comment on the county’s decision to put off a vote, even though it would seem to throw a huge wrench into his plans to have a deal in place next month or else start looking into taking the team and leaving town. He does have another trip to Las Vegas scheduled for next week, though, so presumably he’s hoping that plane trips speak louder than words. He might want to lay off the tweeting this time, though.