Can St. Petersburg pay for Rays stadium plan and 30 years of city needs?

ST. PETERSBURG — Officials made their case Thursday that the city can afford to do it all: responsibly pay for anticipated needs and improvements over the next three decades and repay $700 million for bonds taken out to fund a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium and the surrounding redevelopment.

The meeting came at the request of City Council member Lisset Hanewicz, a vocal skeptic of the city’s current deal who called it an “exercise” to see if the city could afford such an investment. She received enough votes to get a presentation on needs and costs across 18 categories, from wastewater and stormwater systems to city facilities and parks and libraries.

Six out of eight council members got a rundown in a two-hour meeting Thursday morning.

“The nature of this exercise requires us to make some assumptions,” said assistant city administrator Tom Greene. “We’ll talk about those assumptions, not only financial but public policy decisions that this and future councils will have to make.”

Hanewicz began by sharing a report recently sent to council members that found that 60% of water lines downtown, or 22 miles, were found to be in poor condition. They serve St. Anthony’s Hospital, the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County, the St. Petersburg Police Department and City Hall. Total price tag: $39.5 million.

Greene, along with budget director Liz Makofske, debt financing director Anne Fritz and interim chief financial officer Erika Langhans, went over projects slide by slide. They explained how certain city resources are operated like businesses, only spending money earned with revenue collected from that resource. Water, sewer and reclaimed water are funded by utility bills.

Asked by Hanewicz if the city could use money from the general fund, which uses property taxes to pay for police and fire services, to “ease the burden” on residents’ utility bills, Greene said there was “no legal prohibition” against using those funds “for any legal purpose.”

“We have to strike that balance between making sure we have the resources to continue to invest in our infrastructure but understanding we have rate payers,” he said.

There was back-and-forth between Hanewicz and Greene on tax increment financing, which leverages future values to pay for current projects. That’s how the St. Pete Pier was funded. The city wants to use the same playbook for the Trop and Historic Gas Plant: by keeping property taxes collected downtown in downtown.

She asked if the city could use that money instead to pay for a new Municipal Services Center, which needs $54 million in total repairs or $75 million for a new building. Greene said it would have to be negotiated.

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Council member Copley Gerdes, a supporter of the Rays deal, highlighted how the city “stayed strong” through paying for a $326 million consent order after the 2016 sewage spill.

“That’s because of councils before us and this team. I‘d like to think this council has been relatively good and able to make adjustments and still stay strong,” he said. “It seems like there’s still a lot of room where we can bend and throw to our needs as a city... and do everything we’re talking about, based on what we just saw.”

Council chairperson Deborah Figgs-Sanders, who has also signaled support for the deal, said the meeting gave her a “certain level of assurance.”

“Every step we’ve taken to confirm, verify, whatever purpose behind the inquiry has turned out to be positive,” she said. “I would like to think that we’re asking some of our financials to fare far better than some of us keep our own households.”

Others weren’t as convinced.

“My takeaway from today is that we’re 10′s of millions of dollars short per year on our road and water infrastructure spending, and subsidizing a stadium and the profits of a major corporation isn’t going to solve that issue,” council member Richie Floyd texted a reporter after the meeting.

Hanewicz pointed out that the city’s unprecedented growth is on the backs of residents who have seen sharp property tax increases as values skyrocket along with the rising cost of living. The city could move forward with subsidizing the redevelopment of Tropicana Field, she said, or could instead use that money for stormwater needs, rather than depending on utility rate hikes.

“I think it’s important for people who are listening out there for them to understand they are contributing to this,” she said. “It’s their money.”

Upcoming project expenses through 2053

• Water, sewer and reclaimed water - $3.3 billion
• Stormwater - $1.6 billion
• Albert Whitted Airport - $49.8 million
• Municipal marina - $85.8 million
• Streets, sidewalks, seawalls, alleys, bridges - $1.1 billion
• Recreation centers, libraries, parks, pools - $257 million