Backroom Briefing: Bucs throw Hail Mary for stadium funding

By JIM TURNER
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, December 8, 2016.......... The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the field to themselves this year in the quest for what has become an inaccessible pool of state money for professional stadium upgrades.

The Buccaneers Football Stadium Limited Partnership for Raymond James Stadium has applied to receive $1 million a year, for at least 10 years, from the state for already-started renovations that are now projected at between $120 million and $140 million.

The team will pay for most of the work, while $28.8 million is coming through sales taxes in Hillsborough County.

But with House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O' Lakes, vowing to stamp out what he calls "corporate welfare," the Bucs shouldn't expect any help from the state.

Backers of Raymond James Stadium, which already receives $2 million in state sales-tax dollars, also applied for the facility-upgrade money last year but failed to complete the paperwork on time.

Not that it mattered.

A year ago, three entries --- EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Sun Life Stadium in Miami-Dade County and Daytona International Speedway --- were shut out by lawmakers, even after the Department of Economic Opportunity found they qualified for the state sales-tax money.

That was the second consecutive year that the House blocked requests from Jacksonville, Miami-Dade and Daytona Beach.

The Department of Economic Opportunity has until Feb. 1 to review the Buccaneers' latest proposal.

However, Corcoran's office is already deflating the notion that such staff time will be well spent on the review.

"The speaker's position on corporate welfare has not changed and will not change," Fred Piccolo, a Corcoran spokesman, said in an email Thursday. "There will be no corporate welfare in the House budget."
 
Lawmakers in 2014 established an annual $13 million funding pool for stadium work to streamline a process that previously involved heavily lobbied proposals submitted in individual bills and through the budgeting process.

Proponents of stadium funding have argued that the money goes to projects that create jobs, attract tourists and increase regional trade.

But call it the pork-project prevent defense by the House.

Bills have already been filed for the 2017 legislative session (HB 77 and SB 122) that would prohibit sports teams from building or improving stadiums on public lands.

Corcoran also has repeatedly indicated that Gov. Rick Scott will have a hard time securing a requested $85 million for the state's public-private business recruitment agency Enterprise Florida.

SENATE TO REVIEW DISTRICT 30 ELECTION

A Senate committee has been assigned to review the election of a recently seated member from Palm Beach County.

Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, assigned a five-member panel --- led by Rules Chairwoman Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers --- to review a notice of contest filed by Ron Berman. Berman, a Palm Beach Gardens Republican, lost by more than 18,000 votes to Sen. Bobby Powell, a West Palm Beach Democrat who had served two terms in House.

The committee --- Benacquisto, Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, and Sen. Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale --- is expected to meet next month.

The committee review follows a Leon County circuit judge's decision Monday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Rubin Anderson. The judge pointed to a lack of jurisdiction to decide the case. Anderson sought an election do-over because he had been disqualified from the ballot because his $1,781.82 check to enter the Democratic primary bounced.

On Nov. 21, the day before Powell was seated in the Senate, attorney Ryan Berman, representing his father, sent a letter to the Senate asking for the District 30 seat to remain open because of Anderson's lawsuit.

Anderson had based his argument on a Florida Supreme Court ruling in September in which a new mayoral election was declared in Miami Gardens because a candidate was disqualified over a returned check.

In the Miami Gardens case, Wells Fargo Bank had issued the potential candidate a "starter" check for the new campaign account. However, two weeks after qualifying, the check was returned because the account number couldn't be located despite enough money being in the account to cover the qualifying fee.

FESTIVUS RETURNS

Tis the season for reflection and some irreverence, again.

For the fourth consecutive year Deerfield Beach political button-pusher Chaz Stevens, now a member of the Religious Liberty Project, will bring a six-foot Festivus-inspired pole to the Capitol.

The display is one of two approved by the Department of Management Services. A third display remains under review.

In the past, the Festivus pole --- inspired by the TV sitcom "Seinfeld" as a non-commercial festival "for the rest of us” --- was strictly a six-foot tower of Pabst Blue Ribbon cans that stood in opposition to the placement of a Christian nativity scene.
 
While the backer of the nativity scene decided against setting up last year and is not returning this year, Stevens' display, scheduled to go up Dec. 21, will now be all black and contain the names of "unarmed black men killed by police in 2016."

The state agency in charge of the Capitol grounds has also approved a banner intended to give a "scientific and historical explanation of the winter season" by the First Coast Freethought Society, a non-profit from Jacksonville.

An application from the All Saints Catholic Ministry remains under review. The ministry's application mentions a nativity scene, but Department of Management Services Director of Communications Maggie Mickler said the display is expected to be a seasonal banner.

TWEET OF THE WEEK: "I love my job more than anything, but man it must be nice to lobby against, say, tax increases." --- Greg Newburn (@gnewburn), state policy director for Families Against Mandatory Minimums.