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TAMPA, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Rays have released renderings of their new desired stadium, but there is no funding plan yet.\u00a0One potential method of funding is already controversial.<\/p>\n
That is the Community Investment Tax (CIT), which Hillsborough County<\/a> voters first approved in 1996, then re-approved in 2024.<\/p>\n What we know:<\/p>\n The stadium’s biggest backer on the Hillsborough Commission, Ken Hagan, tried to be blunt about it.<\/p>\n “This agreement does not happen without CIT funding. It just doesn’t,” said Hagan. “I want to be honest about that. I don’t want to play games with that.”<\/p>\n The CIT is a half-penny sales tax that has been applied to every sale in Hillsborough County since 1996.\u00a0<\/p>\n It has raised more than $3.5 billion, and is currently split between the county, the cities of Tampa, Plant City and Temple Terrace, the school district and the Tampa Sports Authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n Previous Coverage: Tampa Bay Rays unveil renderings for proposed $2.3B stadium at Hillsborough College<\/a><\/p>\n It has funded 784 public projects, including fire stations, roads and parks. And, it funded the debt on Raymond James Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n So can CIT money be used on a new stadium?<\/p>\n “The work of assembling a financing structure will be challenging and complicated,” said Hillsborough County Administrator Bonnie Wise.<\/p>\n Big picture view:<\/p>\n The thought is that CIT money could be added to hotel taxes, revenue the site generates, and even rental car fees, to contribute to the public’s half of the $2.3 billion stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n The question may not be “can it be done?” but rather, “is it allowed to be done?”<\/p>\n “We promised everyone on the public record that the CIT numbers would be ineligible for the use of new public facilities,” said Hillsborough County Commissioner Joshua Wostal during a county meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n Wostal points to their April 2024 meeting, when ballot language was approved for voters to extend the CIT.<\/p>\n After his motion, several currently on the board, including Commissioners Donna Cepeda and Gwen Myers, agreed with Wostal.<\/p>\n Commissioners voted 5-2 to send to the ballot the language that extends the CIT for fifteen years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read: Agape Flights plane located after crashing in Haiti, no survivors reported: officials<\/a><\/p>\n There was nothing on the ballot about sports stadiums. It passed with 52% support from the voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n “My intentions are not to intervene in the success of this project going forward,” said Wostal, “but rather act in the best interests of the taxpayers of Hillsborough County.”<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n The question for those driving the stadium push, is whether there is a mechanism for CIT funds to be used, which Hagan says is essential to seeing the renderings come to life.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The board voted this week to move forward with negotiations between the Rays and the county.<\/p>\n \u00a0They have under six months to reach an agreement.<\/p>\n The Source: Information for this story came from this week’s Hillsborough County Commission meeting and research conducted by FOX 13’s Evan Axelbank.<\/p>\n Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>Tampa<\/a>Rays Stadium Plans<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Rays have released renderings of their new desired stadium, but there is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,629,3817,115,6164,29208,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-147116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-rays-baseball","tag-rays-stadium","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/vlcsnap-2026-02-06-16h53m41s731.png\")
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