RALEIGH \u2014 The top Republican in the North Carolina House of Representatives isn\u2019t entirely sold on the idea of using taxpayer dollars to help fund a baseball stadium \u2014 an expenditure that could help a private bid for a Major League Baseball franchise. His stance could foreshadow another battle with the Senate over the state budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n
North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall expressed skepticism about the possibility Friday, one day after state Senate leader Phil Berger said it\u2019d be nearly impossible to land a franchise without public dollars<\/a>. Hall said he\u2019d consider it if the project promised clear economic benefits.<\/p>\n \u201cPrivate companies should pay for their own facilities instead of relying on the General Assembly,\u201d Hall said in a statement to WRAL. \u201cHowever, if someone presents a proposal showing that North Carolina taxpayers would get a strong return on the investment, I am willing to consider it.\u201d<\/p>\n Hall and Berger, both Republicans, are negotiating a comprehensive state spending plan after failing to reach an agreement by the start of the current fiscal year.\u00a0<\/p>\n As part of those deliberations, lawmakers are discussing a possible budget provision that would earmark hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development funds for stadium infrastructure in or near Wake County, people familiar with the deliberations told WRAL earlier this week. A proposal to increase county occupancy taxes \u2014 money that could further support the project \u2014 is also being discussed, people familiar with the deliberations told WRAL.<\/p>\n Watch:\u00a0Baseball in North Carolina? Lawmakers negotiate possible cash for a stadium | On the Record<\/a><\/p>\n Berger and Hall have previously disagreed<\/a> over spending on large institutional projects, such as a new state children\u2019s hospital.<\/p>\n Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said he wants the league to select cities for expansion by January 2029<\/a>. It is not certain that the league would expand, but Raleigh and other cities around the nation have been putting plans together for potential bids.<\/p>\n Earlier in the week, Democratic Gov. Josh Stein said that \u201cwe\u2019re eager for this opportunity to be considered, and we\u2019ll do all we can to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon<\/a> and private equity manager Marc Lasry<\/a>, an investor in the NC Courage women\u2019s soccer team, have separately said they want to bring MLB to the region.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you get a Major League Baseball team or a professional football team at this point without there being some cooperation on the part of local and\/or state governments,\u201d Berger said Thursday. \u201cLook around the country, it\u2019s very unusual. And my understanding is most of the professional leagues discourage interest in localities that basically say, \u2018We\u2019ll take it, but only if the stadium is paid for by the owners.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Lawmakers could earmark hundreds of millions for stadium infrastructure or a complex in or near Wake County as part of the budget process. Berger confirmed Thursday that lawmakers could allow counties to increase occupancy taxes, another potential source of funding for a stadium or stadium maintenance.<\/p>\n \u201cI am hopeful that we\u2019ll have an ability to put forward something sooner rather than later that will give us that opportunity,\u201d Berger said when asked about attracting a team to the state.<\/p>\n North Carolina is the ninth-most populous state in the nation \u2014 and projections have it surpassing Georgia and Ohio to become the seventh \u2014 and the largest without a Major League Baseball team.\u00a0<\/p>\n The current top seven most populous states all have multiple MLB teams: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH \u2014 The top Republican in the North Carolina House of Representatives isn\u2019t entirely sold on the idea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,99210,82],"class_list":["post-747969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-nccapitol","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}