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Updated: Jun 19th, 2005 - 20:05:13 |
TALLAHASSEE -- Trying to beat the legislative clock, a Central Florida lawmaker on Friday dropped his long-shot bid for $99 million for an Orlando Magic arena, hoping instead to score with an existing tax break worth $60 million.
"We had a team meeting about this . . . and we've resolved this is what we're going to do," said Rep. David Simmons, R-Longwood.
Simmons said his "team" includes representatives of Orlando, Orange County and the NBA franchise.
Orlando, Orange County and the Magic represent the only eligible major pro franchise that has not sought the existing break enacted in 1987. Seven other local governments already take advantage of the 30-year break, essentially a rebate of sales-tax revenue now going to the state.
Simmons' original plan was to expand the rebate to make it worth $99 million.
But next week, Simmons said he would ask lawmakers to officially designate the city, county and Magic for the eighth and final slot -- but at the $60 million level.
With the legislative session entering its final two weeks, Central Florida officials and the Magic are feverishly seeking to salvage some kind of assurance that a state subsidy would be there to either renovate TD Waterhouse Centre or build a new facility to keep the team from leaving for another city.
"I think Rep. Simmons and the Magic are both playing good defense," said House Finance and Taxation Committee Chairman Fred Brummer, R-Apopka. He has been a vocal opponent of Simmons' bigger tax-break idea, bottling the bill in his powerful committee for weeks.
Friday, Brummer said he had no problem allowing Simmons' bill to be withdrawn from his committee and sent to the full House for a vote next week -- provided Simmons drops the $99 million idea.
Simmons agreed.
The concession comes just days after Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer sent a joint letter to Gov. Jeb Bush urging his help in persuading lawmakers to approve the higher funding.
The two mayors are expected to come to Tallahassee next week to lobby lawmakers, now apparently on the fallback plan, Simmons said.
Since the $60 million tax break was created, state lawmakers have generally viewed the Magic as eligible for the money.
But Brummer acknowledged that with the Florida Marlins, NASCAR and spring-training teams all looking for tax-break legislation this year, Simmons was wise to seek added security.
"Hey, paranoid people sometimes really do have enemies," Brummer said.
The Marlins, for example, have been pushing lawmakers to create a ninth slot for pro sports teams.
The Miami Dolphins NFL team, which was launched in 1966, two decades before the tax break was created, has never received the money.
Bush, however, wasn't immediately supportive of earmarking the eighth tax slot for the Magic, but he promised to "keep an open mind."
But the Republican governor said he preferred the Magic follow the lead of the Marlins, who are laboring to sell their tax-break proposal to lawmakers after persuading city and county officials to back the plan with even more money.
"Plan A ought to be come back with a tangible plan, and here's how we should finance it," Bush said.
If that was done, Bush added, "I would be sympathetic."
Seminole County Watch.com
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