FLORIDA: Voters in south Florida’s Miami-Dade County will soon decide if billionaire real estate developer Stephen Ross can tap local hotel taxes to help pay for a $350m upgrade to the stadium used by his Miami Dolphins.
County legislators yesterday approved a May 14 referendum asking Miami-Dade to increase a lodging tax to 7 percent from 6 percent. The added hotel taxes would back a municipal bond offering by the county to overhaul Sun Life Stadium.
After the vote, Florida’s legislators must also approve any increase of the tax voters may approve.
Battling a May 22 deadline for Miami to be considered as a host for the 50th Super Bowl in 2016, the Dolphins and Miami-Dade County officials struck a deal Tuesday that calls for the National Football League team to receive $7.5m in county hotel taxes annually for 26 years.
Ross has said the Dolphins, in which he holds a 95 percent stake, would pay $191m of the $350m project and argued an improved stadium was key to attracting high-profile events. Miami has hosted 10 Super Bowl championships.
To fund the project, the team could also ask for as much as a $200m loan from the NFL.
Dolphins spokesman Eric Jotkoff wasn’t immediately available yesterday to discuss whether the team is pursuing league funds.
An NFL loan would need to be approved by 24 of the league’s 32 teams, according to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello.
As part of the agreement with Miami-Dade officials, Ross and the Dolphins pledged to pay the $5m cost of a special election and to keep the team in Miami for the next 30 years should the deal and tax come to fruition.
AFP
