Tennessee gov proposes $500m in tax money for Titans, or maybe more, what is money even

When I wrote here yesterday about the golden age of NFL stadium subsidies we appear to be heading into, I hadn’t noticed yet that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee just increased his offer of public cash for a new Titans stadium, from $300 million to $500 million or maybe more:

Governor Bill Lee’s budget amendment that includes a $500 million bond authorization for a new downtown Nashville football stadium was submitted to a Senate committee on Tuesday morning. … The state would fully fund the debt service to show the commitment to creditors. Municipal and private sources will make up a majority of the funding.

If you’re not sure what all that means, you’re not alone. The state will “fully fund” the bond payments, but “a majority” of the money will come from city and private sources? WSMV-TV, which wrote the above word salad, also included a tweet from one of its reporters to help explain the proposal:

#SoundUp
Those presenting Gov. Lee’s budget talking about the $500 million in bonds for the @Titans new stadium.

Those presenting described it as a “World class stadium” and say revenue from bonds will cover debt service. @WSMV pic.twitter.com/np7R9b297i

— Tosin Fakile (@TosinfaksTV) March 29, 2022

Uhhhh, “revenue from bonds would cover debt service” is not a thing, you realize that, don’t you, Tosin Fakile? Bonds are just debt, like a mortgage; they only provide revenue to the people you’re borrowing the money from. (Don’t bother watching the video, it doesn’t provide any explanation.)

The Tennessean provides a bit more information, though it’s still hazy on where the state money would come from: The governor’s proposal would “expand the state’s general-obligation debt ceiling by $500 million,” it reports, so maybe this is just a proposal to sell $500 million worth of bonds, and it will be paid off with “don’t worry, this will all work out”? Back at WSMV, Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Butch Eley provides a few more hints in that direction:

“What we envision is that when that property is, when you said is developed over the coming years, that our portion of those taxes coming off of that would go toward being able to fund this $500 million investment. That’s how we would envision funding that,” Eley said. “We don’t know what that revenue stream looks like, but we feel like all of those dollars going toward that would allow us to be able to invest in that without current taxpayer dollars going to that.”

So, new development at the stadium site, wherever that would be, would generate new taxes, which would be kicked back to pay the state’s stadium costs, assuming those would be enough, which no one knows if they will, but the state “feels” like they will be, maybe. That’s totally clear!

But wait, there’s more: Axios Nashville reports that “the state funds are also contingent on the Titans and the city of Nashville agreeing on a broader financing package,” so apparently there would be additional city money as well. How much? Nobody is saying, and Eley didn’t include it in his slide projected at his presentation, so guess that’s not important news!

Amid all this mumbling and handwaving by electeds, it’s really impossible to say right now how much Tennessee taxpayers would be on the hook for a new Titans stadium. Or how much a new Titans stadium would cost. We do know that it would be a domed stadium, because Eley said that’s required so that “we could have activities year round and be able to host a number of activities, concerts and things we can’t do now” including “the Super Bowl, Final Fours. We felt like that would be a good investment for Tennessee. The long term economic impact would pay off.” I would suggest that Tennessee state officials, or at least Tennessee reporters, do the math, but apparently they were promised there would be no math.