Reds, Brewers stadium deals strain cities

• NY Times, "As Revenue Plunges, Stadium Boom Adds to Municipal Woes," 12/24/09:

"Nowhere is the problem more acute than in Cincinnati. In 1996, voters in Hamilton County approved an increase of half of one percent in the sales tax that promised to build and maintain stadiums for the Bengals and the Reds, pay Cincinnati’s public schools and give homeowners an annual property tax rebate. The stadiums were supposed to spur development of the city’s dilapidated riverfront.

• But sales tax receipts have fallen so fast in the last year that the county is now scrambling to bridge a $14 million deficit in its sales tax fund. The public schools, which deferred taking their share for years, want their money.

The teams have not volunteered to rewrite their leases. So in the coming weeks,

• the county plans to cut basic services,

lower its legal bills and drain a bond reserve fund with

• no plan for paying it back....

Cincinnati is hardly alone. ...In Milwaukee, a drop in sales tax receipts may delay by several years the date for

• paying off the bonds issued to build Miller Park,
• the home of the Brewers."...

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