[Elvis]

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt ... bf6e9.html

Will taxes fund new stadium? You decide

ST. LOUIS • The public may yet have a voice in the proposal to send tax dollars to a new football stadium here.

Decade-old laws in St. Louis and St. Louis County require voter approval before either government helps pay for “the development of a professional sports facility.”

Last week, Gov. Jay Nixon’s two-man team pitched an “extension” of the current Edward Jones Dome bonds to raise as much as $350 million toward the nearly $1 billion stadium project. They said they weren’t sure whether the voter-approval requirement would apply.

But local lawyers and municipal finance experts said this week that it seemed to.

“If all they’re doing is taking longer to pay it off, that’s one thing. But I’m assuming they’re actually getting new money, which is what they want,” said Peter Salsich Jr., a retired St. Louis University law professor.

Salsich warned that no one will really know until the deal’s details are revealed.

Still, he said, “It’s going to be tough to argue that a vote is not required.”

Former Anheuser-Busch President David Peacock and current Jones Dome attorney Robert Blitz laid out plans Friday for a 64,000-seat, open-air stadium north of downtown on the Mississippi riverfront. It could, they said, cost as much as $985 million.

They outlined a list of potential financing sources, including as much as $250 million from Rams owner Stan Kroenke, $200 million in National Football League loans to the team, $55 million in state support and tax credits, and $130 million in the sale of personal seat licenses, which allow fans to buy season tickets.

Echoing the pledge of Nixon and other public officials, Peacock and Blitz promised no new taxes.

But not the absence of tax dollars.

The two proposed “extending” the bond debt still being paid down on the Jones Dome, where the St. Louis Rams now play, and cashing out as much as $350 million for the new stadium.

They didn’t describe how it would work, just that the annual payments wouldn’t surmount the $24 million total now being paid each year — $12 million from the state, $6 million from the city and $6 million from the county. Financiers, they said, were still figuring out the details.

Finance professionals unrelated to the project later explained that local governments in other cities have done similar things, essentially refinancing existing debt, taking out a new 30-year loan, for instance, then paying off the old debt and using the lion’s share of the new loan to build a new stadium.

More than $100 million in debt is left on the Jones Dome bonds. Payments, if they continue at pace, are scheduled to end in 2021.

Peacock and Blitz said last week that they didn’t know whether a public vote would be required to dedicate the payments of the old loan to the new loan.

And local officials have since made similar statements.

The laws — a municipal ordinance in the city and a charter amendment in the county — prohibit any “financial assistance” from the city and county to a professional sports facility without voter approval. And they define “financial assistance” quite broadly, including tax reduction, tax increment financing, land preparation, loans, donations, payment of obligations, and the issuance, authorization, or guarantee of bonds.

“The ordinance looks fairly straightforward,” said St. Louis University law professor Henry Ordower.

Still, Ordower, Salsich and others cautioned that it was impossible to know without the details of the new bond proposals.

Lawyers, several said, can write around nearly anything.

“Without knowing the proponents’ counter-arguments,” Ordower wrote in an email, “it is difficult to see what others are thinking.”

For instance, he continued, they could view the new stadium not as a new facility, but as a new wing of the old.

Fred Lindecke, a former Post-Dispatch reporter who worked to pass the voter-approval laws, sees the issue as straightforward.

“If you’re financing beyond the Jones Dome, you’re going to have to borrow more money,” he said. “That is taking tax money for the construction of a new stadium, and therefore it triggers a referendum.”

Moreover, he said, there’s a moral obligation to take the idea to voters.

St. Louis residents passed the ordinance in 2002 by nearly 10 percentage points, 55 percent to 45 percent. St. Louis County voters approved a similar measure in 2004 by even more, 72 percent to 28 percent.

So if lawyers find a loophole to avoid the votes this time, Lindecke said, it becomes a political question: Will politicians find it objectionable to bypass the public?

Cordell Whitlock, communications director for St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, said his office didn’t think the law required an additional vote.

Voters already approved the revenue stream two decades ago when they passed the county tax on hotel rooms, which, in part, pays down the Jones Dome debt, he said.

Jeff Rainford, chief of staff to St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, promised the city would follow the law. “We don’t know yet the mechanism how all of this will work,” he said. “All depends on how the thing is structured.”

No one really knows the answer now, said Jim Shrewsbury, chairman of the Jones Dome’s public board. It will likely end up in court, he said.

Rainford, however, isn’t sure a vote would be the worst thing for the proposal.

This is a good deal, he said. “There’s no new taxes,” he said. “No new fees.”

It requires substantial investment from Kroenke and the NFL.

“Last time, St. Louis built a stadium without a team,” Rainford continued. “This time, that ain’t going to happen.”

[Hacksaw]

I missed the 2/3rds part. Can their deal afford to do that?

[The Ripper]

Looks like there some more changes. The county may not need a vote.

[azramsfan93]

Now it's down to 50% of game-day sales taxes for the first decade, and then declining to 25% in the 2nd, before going to zero. To boot, they are keeping ALL of the naming rights revenue.

Why would Stan and the NFL EVER accept this LOUSY proposal?

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2015/10/29/new-riverfront-stadium-financing-plan-tweaks-city-contribution/

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – The city’s riverfront football stadium funding plan is now finalized and one of the aldermen for the area says it’s a good deal for taxpayers.

It calls for the city to give 50 percent of game-day sales taxes back to the team in the first decade and 25 percent in the second decade. Then the city keeps the rest in year 21 and on.

Alderman Jack Coatar says previous versions had all of those proceeds going to the team.

The plan also tweaks the city’s yearly bond payment amounts.

Instead of $6 million a year, which is what the city currently pays toward the Edward Jones Dome, the payments would be $4.5 million and then rise over the years to $9 million. But the total dollar figure in the end wouldn’t change.

Two major facets of the plan remain unchanged. First, naming rights revenue would count toward the city’s contribution. Second, nothing gets built if there isn’t a contribution from both a team owner and the NFL’s G4 program.

“The colleagues I talk to are mostly in favor of it,” Coatar said. “They’re looking at this and saying ‘this is about the same amount of money we’re paying currently. It’s a break-even deal and it’s a billion dollar investment project in a blighted area of the riverfront.'”

Aldermen are expected to introduce the revised legislation at their meeting Friday.

The governor-appointed stadium task force, chaired by Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz, sent this statement:

“Today is an important milestone for our effort and the future of St. Louis. We’re grateful for work and leadership of Alderwoman Tammika Hubbard and Alderman Jack Coatar in introducing Bill 219, and we are thoroughly committed to working with the entire Board of Alderman and City of St. Louis officials to ensure that this important measure is fully vetted and ultimately passed. Bill 219 positions St Louis to make an sensible contribution to the stadium project and redevelopment of the North Riverfront, such that the long-term benefits to the community are clear to everyone.”
None of the comments made by NFL executives at their St. Louis town hall Tuesday about potential team relocation to Los Angeles apparently had any impact on the revised plan.

But the league’s timeline still looms large over local legislators.

“We’ve got to get this deal done and we’ve got to show the NFL that our city and our region is committed to the project,” Coatar said.

[TSFH Fan]

Looks like there some more changes. The county may not need a vote.

Isn't that really the tail end of a twitter discussion where some guys, including Hunn and Rosenbaum, are just shooting the breeze about getting the county to chip in?

[TSFH Fan]

Why would Stan and the NFL EVER accept this LOUSY proposal?

I think the Task Force knows that it's more probable than not that neither the NFL nor Stan would accept this DOA/POS proposal.

But that being said, I think to keep the leverage game going, to keep Fake Carson Stadium appear not-fake, and/or for StD local political reasons, we're going to start hearing more stuff like the NFL will never walk away from so much public money on the table and/or if the Task Force completes it's mission and gets the Bill passed through the BOA then the NFL won't let the Rams leave.

[Hacksaw]

Agreed. Why wouldn't they "walk away" from this deal if a better one was presented elsewhere? Like in LA.. To be fair to StL? We'll dumping LA 21 years ago ought to trump that one.