lightning can’t get enough

A couple years ago, the Tampa Bay Lightning worked with the State of Florida to get a $60,000,000 rebate on sales tax. They get $2Mil each year for 30 years, as do most, if not all of the professional sports teams in Florida.

Apparently, 60M is not nearly enough.

Along with all the other professional sports teams in Florida, the Lightning want another $60 Million. They think you forgot about the first break. And apparently some have.

Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, is drafting the bill and points to provisions that require any franchise, should it leave Florida within 15 years, to agree to reimburse the state for future payments the venue would receive.

“I wanted to make sure that if we’re going to dish out money for economic development, whether it’s for Home Depot, the Lightning or the Marlins, that those tax dollars are spent responsibly,” Fasano said.

“This is a taxpayer security measure as much as it is an economic development measure,” said Rep. Trey Traviesa, R-Tampa, who plans to sponsor a bill in the House.

They are not the only two. New Gov Charlie Crist can’t wait to give away your tax money either:

Gov. Charlie Crist recently said he supports helping the Marlins, noting that sports venues benefit not only owners but the people who sell hotdogs and parking.

Don’t forget that there are nine (NINE!) pro sports venues that could possibly qualify for this break. That comes to $540 MILLION more in sales taxes. Hey Charlie, don’t you think that $540 Million Dollars could help shore up the insurance problem? Could you use that to help with education funding? Or at least finally have the state pay for those state-mandated, but local-government-funded US Flags?

On the other hand Charlie did just say that “It’s time to return tax dollars to the people.” And you thought he meant people like you.

Maybe we’re being too harsh. I mean, Floridians love their sports. Let’s take a closer look.

According to the article, the local hockey arena brings in about $7M/year in sales taxes. It is not clear if this is total tax revenue or net of the original $2M giveaway. Let’s give the team the benefit of the doubt, and assume the figure is net of the original. Now, should we pay $4M to gain $5M? If the team was not here, would people spend their money on other things to get the $5M?

Let’s look at it another way, and we’ll give the team the benefit of the doubt AGAIN by using the $7M as a gross figure. If they are bringing in $7M in taxes, that means they have over $100M in revenue from sales in the arena. A good corporate citizen would want to pay their fair share, wouldn’t they?

I say we have been generous enough with the first $60M. And we did not even bring up the additional parking revenues they want from the city (by the way, since the city lowered parking rates in January, I wonder if they’ve seen an increase in customers).

The lighting (nor the bucs, the rays, the marlins, the panthers, the jaguars, the dolphins, etc.) do not need additional breaks. Let ‘em leave. See if anyone else wants them.