Tampa Bay Rays stadium<\/a> to the area.<\/p>\nWith the clock ticking toward a potential April 15 vote and pressure to stay on track for a 2029 opening day, key questions remain unanswered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess on this one guys, I\u2019m like: what are we doing at this point? What is happening?\u201d Commissioner Joshua Wostal said.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest sticking points is how the project would be paid for, specifically whether Community Investment Tax (CIT) dollars would come from a projected surplus or existing revenue already designated for infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we still only negotiating of the alleged excess of the CIT or are they now negotiating of existing CIT dollars that were approved?\u201d Wostal said.<\/p>\n
County staff did not draw a clear distinction, saying multiple options are still being considered.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are considering any and all creative revenue sources,\u201d County Administrator Bonnie Wise said.<\/p>\n
At the same time, commissioners pushed for more transparency into the process. But county leaders say there\u2019s little to release at this point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe county has not received any draft documents,\u201d County Attorney Julia Mandell said.<\/p>\n
That response drew sharp criticism from Wostal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this board doesn\u2019t want the public to see how we\u2019re spending their money then shame on us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Other commissioners warned that releasing details too early could hurt negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a necessary balance between transparency and the county\u2019s ability to negotiate responsibly and effectively on behalf of the taxpayers,\u201d Commissioner Christine Miller said.<\/p>\n
In the end, commissioners voted to hold a public workshop once a full proposal is ready. That meeting would allow for a detailed presentation, questions from commissioners and a separate opportunity for public comment before any final vote.<\/p>\n
They also plan to seek outside legal guidance on whether CIT dollars can be used for the project.<\/p>\n
Commissioners acknowledged that if CIT funding is ultimately part of the deal, legal challenges are likely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With an April 15 vote approaching, commissioners are divided over how a potential stadium would be funded and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-215207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215207","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=215207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}