While looking around for Carlos Delgado stuff yesterday, I ran across an article in the Miami Herald describing a subsidy Wayne Huizenga received many years ago to fit his football stadium to allow baseball to be played there. Here are the first few paragraphs:
State Senate President Tom Lee suggested on Wednesday that he’d like to stop Wayne Huizenga from receiving millions in tax breaks for refurbishing his stadium for the Florida Marlins because the team is leaving the ballpark and is seeking a $60 million subsidy identical to what Huizenga won years ago.
”I really want to look into how that was done, in what context it was done and what promises were made,” Lee said. “But there are allegations developing that [getting a new subsidy] would essentially represent a double-dip by the Marlins.”
Huizenga, the team’s former owner, said through a spokesman that he’s entitled to the money and will fight in court if the Legislature tries to take it away.
Whether the tax fight reaches that point is anyone’s guess, although the Marlins’ request has clearly ushered in a free-for-all in the Legislature.
”We’ve received phone calls from the [Tampa Bay] Devil Rays and everybody who would like to get on that bandwagon if they could. And the well here in Florida is only so deep,” Lee said.
The Marlins ran afoul of Lee recently for suggesting the club might leave Florida if the Legislature doesn’t approve the subsidy to help the team build a new stadium in Miami. Lee said at the time that he doesn’t “negotiate with terrorists.”
Read more here.
