A new framework for a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays may not be enough to satisfy staunch critics of the proposed ballpark in Hillsborough County.

County Commissioner Joshua Wostal told Florida Politics that the latest Tampa Bay Rays stadium framework has not eased his concerns about public risk, saying, “if anything, it may have gotten worse.”

Wostal said the county’s proposed use of community investment tax (CIT) dollars creates an immediate problem. He said the county would commit $360 million over four years, taking up more than half of expected annual CIT revenue in the early years of the renewed 15-year tax.

“The $90 million a year for Fiscal Year ’27 to Fiscal Year ’30, that’s going to be over 50% of the new annual CIT revenues because the CIT is underperforming compared to past years,” Wostal said.

“And, we had an unexpected loss of $12 million a year because there’s no longer a business lease sales tax that used to be applied. So that means that we’re going to have some very hard decisions to make. That ends (Rays CEO) Ken Babby’s statement of a no-harm framework immediately. We’re going to have to delay a significant amount of projects. All of those projects will cost much more money to complete five years from now when we start catching up.”

Meanwhile, Tampa Council Member Charlie Miranda said he is concerned even a nonbinding MOU could box elected officials into later approvals before they have enough answers about the site, traffic, costs and promised development.

He told Florida Politics that he has only scanned the MOU so far, but criticized the proposal for a lack of guarantees that the entertainment district would ever be built out. The economic impact projections used by the Tampa Bay Rays as part of their pitch are dependent on the entertainment district serving as a primary revenue generator.

“There’s no guarantee that what they say is going to happen is going to happen,” Miranda said. “That’s not in this contract as far as I read so far. It’s all about pie in the sky and that everything is going to work out. Well, that’s not the way I do business,” Miranda said.

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and other proponents are urging residents to view the MOU as an early step in the process and not a final deal. She was among many local officials who praised the MOU during a news conference last week, but echoed her pitch to residents in her weekly newsletter on Monday. She explained that the MOU is “less like a contract and more like a handshake with a witness,” and that “nobody is writing checks yet.” 

“What it is, is a shared commitment to keep working toward something real — responsibly, transparently, and with this community’s best interests as our north star,” Castor said in the newsletter.

She emphasized that keeping Major League Baseball in Tampa Bay is worth pursuing for reasons beyond sports, but noted that the use of tourism tax dollars would ensure that the city “can’t and won’t give away the store” to do it. 

“We’re talking workforce pathways, affordable housing opportunities, infrastructure improvements in Drew Park, and long-term economic growth that reaches well beyond the outfield wall,” Castor said. “A significant portion of the funding conversation centers on tourism tax revenue, dollars largely generated by visitors, not Tampa residents.” 

The divide over public funding for the project will be on full display this week, when Hillsborough County meets Wednesday to vote on the proposal and Tampa follows suit on Thursday.

After reviewing the MOU last week, Wostal said the deal’s treatment of CIT dollars and county reserves would leave taxpayers exposed.

Under the framework, the public contribution would be capped at roughly $976 million. Hillsborough County’s share would total up to $796 million, including $360 million in CIT revenue, about $263 million in tourist development tax (TDT) bond proceeds, a $40 million sixth-cent TDT reserve payment, $30 million in federal disaster recovery funds for stormwater work and $103 million from other county sources.

Wostal criticized the framework for still relying on CIT dollars and $103 million in county reserves. He said his priority before approval would be stripping both from the deal in favor of a fee-based funding strategy.

“I would prioritize deleting property taxes and deleting CIT and getting it back to what it was supposed to have always been that we agreed to, which was a fee structure funding strategy only,” Wostal said.

Meanwhile, Tampa and its Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) would contribute another $180 million combined, including $80 million from the city and up to $100 million from CRA funds tied to the surrounding development.

“They want about everything they can get, including the CRA,” Miranda said. “The CRA is supposed to end in the 2030’s. Now they want to extend it eight or nine years more.”

The Rays would be responsible for the remaining project costs and overruns. The MOU also says the team’s contribution would not be less than the public contribution and that public money would not be deposited until the Rays provide evidence satisfactory to local governments that they can fund their share.

But Miranda said he still wants to see more details. He questioned how the project would affect Hillsborough College, what would happen to existing recreation areas and how traffic would be handled around Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa Bay Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

“This is not exactly what I was expecting to get,” Miranda said.

“I expected to get a plan. Here’s what we’re going to build. Here’s what it’s going to cost. And how do I know the park’s going to cost $2.3 billion? I don’t know that. Show me your contractor. Show me your contract. Show me the cost of business. Show me the cost of products. Show me how you’re going to do it. You know, that’s a lot of money. And show me the traffic pattern. There’s nothing that has been shown to any elected official. I hate to say that.”