Downtown Partnership Letter To the Pinellas Board of County

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To the Pinellas Board of County Commissioners

‍

Dear Commissioners,

‍

Thank you for your service to Pinellas County. I am grateful for your leadership and willingness to represent the interests of your constituents. I also appreciate this opportunity to encourage you to honor the commitment Pinellas County has already made with bonds for the new Rays ballpark in St. Pete.

As you know, the City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County have signed legal agreements with the Rays baseball team to contribute to the ballpark. A failure to fulfill the terms of the agreement could provide the Rays and their partner Hines, with a rationale to take the team to another city while still benefiting from the favorable terms and land pricing, offered as part of the stadium deal. Sucking funds out of our economy to build a ballpark in another city would be a bitter pill for the people of Pinellas County to swallow. It would also send an inaccurate signal to other investors that they should avoid investing in our community because the public sector will not honor commitments already agreed to.

The deal is a good one for Pinellas County. Investment in the ballpark through heavily restricted tourism tax dollars will result in new additional sales and property tax revenue for local governments. These new tax funds will be unrestricted and can be spent on any of the many priorities our community faces right now. Officials at the City of St. Petersburg have indicated that the Rays have operated in good faith and have fulfilled all the terms on their side. It is important that the public sector also honor the commitments that have been made.

On behalf of our organization and the hundreds of businesses the Downtown Partnership represents, I encourage you to support the bonds and fulfill the commitments that have been made.

Sincerely,

‍

Jason Mathis

CEO

St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership