Wednesday, April 19, 2000
Reds ballpark may be caught in money squeeze
BY Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Hamilton County has been spending sales tax money so fast and in such massive amounts it might have trouble issuing bonds to pay for a new Reds ballpark, Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes said Tuesday.
“There seems to be an attitude that this tax money is a bottomless pit,” he said. “It's not.”
As auditor, Mr. Rhodes would have to sign off on the issuing of new bonds to pay for construction of a Reds ballpark, set to open in 2003.
Mr. Rhodes, whose office just completed a quarterly report on spending on the stadium sales tax projects, said the county has spent so much money on the new Paul Brown Stadium and related projects, “it would be hard for me to sign off on incurring new debt.”
But County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus said Tuesday — before seeing Mr. Rhodes' report — that the county has known all along that it would have to incur substantial bond debts to build stadiums for the Ben gals and Reds.
He said the money management so far “is just fine.”
Mr. Bedinghaus said he is convinced there will be enough cash generated by the sales tax to leverage bonds for construction of a Reds ballpark.
When the commissioners meet today, Mr. Bedinghaus said, they will start the process of issuing new bonds for the Reds ballpark, which will have an estimated cost of $280 million.
But, Mr. Bedinghaus said, “contrary to what Dusty might think, we're not rushing back to the bond market because we anticipate any cash flow problems.”
Mr. Rhodes' report showed that through March 31, the county had spent $355 million on construction of Paul Brown Stadium, including about $70 million early on for land acquisition and $26.6 million in interest
on bonds.
The county has been using receipts from the half-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in 1996 to leverage about $340 million worth of bonds for the Paul Brown Stadium project.
When the sales tax was sold to voters, county officials did not promise a date when it would be removed, saying it could be lifted after the projects are complete and the bonds for the projects are paid off.
As of March 31, the county had about $15.4 million in undistributed sales tax
receipts on hand — down from $39.4 million Dec. 31.
Mr. Rhodes argues that the county has dipped into the stadium sales tax money for other projects — such as Fort Washington Way, which has taken about $20 million in sales tax money, and riverfront parking, which has cost about $5 million.
“They can't keep spending it on this other stuff and hope to have enough sales tax money left over to leverage bonds for a Reds ballpark,” Mr. Rhodes said. “This is just costing too much.”
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Reds ballpark may be caught in money squeeze
