December 19, 2007

Dade County doesn't approve Marlins stadium?

Apparently when Miami-Dade County commissioners voted yesterday to spend $249 million on a Florida Marlins stadium last night, they weren't actually voting to spend money on a Marlins stadium. Rather, they were voting to expand the city's Community Redevelopment Agencies, funneling off local tax revenue to pay off debt on the city's performing arts center, as well as building new museums and other stuff; that in turn would free up tourist tax money, which could be spent on a stadium. But the county won't vote on actually spending money on a stadium until tomorrow, at which point commissioners are expecting to see a "stadium agreement" spelling out more details of the deal. Though not all details, because some still won't be worked out until after the vote.

Confused yet? Then you'll want to overlook the fact that the Miami city commission, which approved its own $121 million in stadium spending last week, would still need to vote whether to approve the stadium agreement. And you certainly won't want to dwell on the AP headline saying the state legislature has to sign off on the deal as well - especially since there's nothing in the AP story itself saying this, meaning it's pretty likely that an AP editor just didn't read the story closely enough before writing the headline.

Said county commissioner Natacha Seijas yesterday as she prepared to vote on the new development scheme just one day after first hearing about it - hey, that sounds familiar - "This is way too much for us to try and absorb today." My sentiments exactly.