Region desk
Tampa Bay
Tampa, St. Pete, and Clearwater: Tampa’s 4-3 council vote on Oct. 29 approving the Rays’ $21M community benefits promise to the city, $4.2M of it due by 2031, the Rays’ owners and their companies giving to Hillsborough commission races, Axios reports, two franchises drawing on one Hillsborough tax well, a Nov. 10 hearing, a week after the election, on $360M of the county’s half-cent sales tax for the Rays’ ballpark, Tampa’s 4-3 vote on Oct. 15 to seek court validation of up to $80M in Rays bonds, and a former governor running for St. Petersburg mayor with nearly $411,000 in campaign and committee cash as of Oct. 2.
Tampa Bay stories
- Teams · TampaTampa approves the Rays' $21 million benefits promise, with $4.2 million due by 2031Tampa owes up to $80 million toward public works at the Rays' new ballpark. A divided council has now approved the team's separate promise to the city, and only $4.2 million of it is fixed.
- Teams · TampaThe Rays' owners want Hillsborough's sales tax, and they are giving to its commission racesA group led by Patrick Zalupski, founder of the Jacksonville homebuilder Dream Finders Homes, owns the Rays. The news site Axios reports the owners and their companies gave to three commissioners. They vote Nov. 10 on the ballpark's sales tax.
- Teams · Tampa BayRays bond vote ties 3-3, then a sick councilman dials in to pass itTampa City Council deadlocked 3-3 on Thursday, Oct. 15, on asking a judge to approve up to $80 million in bonds for the city’s share of the Rays ballpark. Then Bill Carlson, absent with a stomach bug, joined virtually and it passed 4-3, with Lynn Hurtak, Charlie Miranda and Guido Maniscalco voting no (Tampa Bay Times; Florida Politics). The vote borrows nothing. Issuing bonds takes a separate council vote, the city attorney says Tampa is obligated for the $80 million either way, and the first $20 million payment is due in January (City of Tampa; Florida Politics). A binding vote on the community benefits deal is set for Oct. 29, per FOX 13. Meanwhile the Rays won Games 4 and 5 in Cleveland to lead the ALCS 3-2, with Game 6 at the Trop Monday night (MLB Stats API).
- Teams · Tampa BayBucs float a two-thirds public tab for Ray Jay as the first seat bid comes in under budgetThe Buccaneers have floated covering one-third of a $1B Raymond James renovation, with the public paying the rest (Sports Business Journal and Pewter Report, citing the Tampa Bay Times). Tampa Sports Authority staff recommended Hussey Seating at $19.27M against a $30M seating budget, but the board’s Sept. 29 action was still unpublished as of Oct. 18 (TSA). Hillsborough adopted its budget Sept. 24. The recommended budget carries $83.7M for the stadium, and the adopted documents are not yet posted (county; Tampa Bay Times). The Bucs owe their lease decision by Jan. 31, 2027 (WUSF).
- Politics · St. PetersburgCharlie Crist’s St. Pete committee pays two firms listed at the Florida Politics addressSt. Pete Shines, the committee backing Charlie Crist for St. Petersburg mayor, is chaired by Michelle Todd Schorsch, who is married to Florida Politics publisher Peter Schorsch. From Sept. 12 to Oct. 9 it sent $299,754.90 of its $321,906.27 in spending to All Too Strategic and Extensive Enterprises, two firms state records list at the address Florida Politics gives for itself, which the committee also lists as its own (state records; Florida Politics; our arithmetic). In the week to Oct. 9, Shines raised $81,500 and Mayor Ken Welch’s committee raised nothing (state records; Florida Politics). Crist leads 53% to 32% in an Oct. 13 St. Pete Polls survey (Florida Politics). Early voting starts today, Oct. 19.
Statewide read-across
- Politics · TallahasseeRealtors gave $21.5 million to pass Amendment 3. One Gainesville firm got 98 cents of each dollar spentNearly all of the Realtors' campaign spending has gone to SGS Inc., a Gainesville firm that Orlando Weekly reports is owned by longtime GOP operative Patrick Bainter. Three committees fight the measure, and one was formed by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, CubaHeadlines reported.
- Teams · TallahasseeFlorida State fires Mike Norvell and takes on a buyout that runs to 2031The team had three wins and five losses this season, after two seasons without a bowl game, the postseason reward for enough wins. Reports put the public university's bill at about $47 million to $50 million, and no record yet says whose money pays it.
- Politics · TallahasseeJolly asks Byron Donalds to pledge to divest his family's school firms. Erika Donalds calls it sexistFlorida picks a governor Tuesday, Nov. 3, and Democrat David Jolly wants Republican Byron Donalds to give up his family's interests in charter school companies if he wins. Erika Donalds, Byron's wife, runs those companies and says they are hers, not his.
- Houses · StatewideUthmeier sues the firm behind home-listing flood scores, calling them deceptiveFlorida's attorney general says First Street's scores call some homes major flood risks where federal flood maps show minimal hazard, and cost sellers sales. First Street has not answered, and no court has ruled.
- Politics · TallahasseeKalshi and the Seminole Tribe paid Byron Donalds's PAC on the same dayDonalds's PAC, a political committee that takes donations, got $500,000 from the tribe and $250,000 from Kalshi on Oct. 13. Five days earlier, the tribe backed New Jersey against Kalshi at the Supreme Court.
- Politics · TallahasseeRegulators' own staff says deny Duke's data center plan as filedA new Florida law says data centers and other giant power users must pay the full cost of serving them. In the law's first test, the state regulator's own experts say Duke has not shown its plan does that.
- Politics · TallahasseeSenate President Albritton will vote no on Amendment 3, the tax cut his Senate put on the ballotBen Albritton voted for the property tax cut in June. Now he opposes it, while Realtor groups pay for the campaign to pass it.
- Business · StatewideBrightline promised its Tampa bondholders full principal. Their bonds trade, and are valued, far below faceObjections to Brightline’s bankruptcy financing are due Oct. 22, and the final hearing is Oct. 29. First Eagle, whose manager says par is preserved, marked its fund’s junior Tampa-backed bonds at 28 cents July 31.
- Houses · Statewide ballotAmendment 3 skips your school tax, and school boards are on the same ballotThe state’s own estimate shows Amendment 3 takes nothing off the school line of any county’s property tax bill, while counties, cities and special districts lose $4.9 billion in its first year (Florida EDR). On the same Nov. 3 ballot, at least 13 school boards, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach among them, ask voters to keep or add a 1 mill school tax, and Florida Realtors have written $19.5 million for the yes side (school board records; Division of Elections).
- Politics · TallahasseeHope Florida: the Trib counts more than $444,000 in public money for private law firms in the grand jury fight, and the order erasing the report is open to rehearing until ThursdayThe Oct. 7 appeals ruling ordering the Hope Florida grand jury report expunged is not final until the rehearing deadline passes Thursday, Oct. 22, and we found no report of a motion; the public case system does not open the court’s docket for the case (1st DCA opinion; Florida courts). The two-year campaign-finance charging deadlines the Florida Trident reads for the October 2024 checks began falling due Saturday, Oct. 17, and the last ones fall Oct. 28 and 29; no one has been charged (WLRN, Florida Trident; Division of Elections; our arithmetic). The Florida Trib counts more than $444,000 in public money paid to three private law firms hired to represent state officials in the fight, and state contract records show no new payments to them since Oct. 5 (Florida Trib; FACTS).
- Storm money · PanhandlePensacola’s Isaias cleanup: DeSantis asks Trump for a major disaster declaration, and Escambia reverses its administrator to bring back its biggest debris haulerFlorida has asked President Trump for a major disaster declaration covering Public Assistance in 15 Panhandle counties and Individual Assistance in eight, Escambia among them; FEMA’s data still showed no approval on Oct. 18 (Executive Office of the Governor; Florida Division of Emergency Management; OpenFEMA). Escambia commissioners voted Oct. 15 to put AshBritt back on debris pickup, with Commissioner Steven Barry voting no, after Administrator Wes Moreno had cut the county to two haulers; the county’s repair bill is about $64 million, $54.87 million of it debris removal (WEAR-TV). Moody’s RMS now puts U.S. private insured losses at $2.5 billion to $4.5 billion, best estimate $3.5 billion (Moody’s; Artemis). Citizens had 9,052 policies and $3.56 billion of exposure in eight Panhandle coastal counties as of Aug. 31 (Citizens).
- Politics · StatewideByron Donalds’ PAC has now sent Florida’s GOP $35 million, $4 million of it this monthThrough Oct. 9, Donalds’ PAC had spent $99.6M by our sum of state records, including $35M to the Republican Party of Florida in 11 payments ($4M on Oct. 5). With his campaign account he has spent $110.7M, which Florida Politics puts at “more than $110 million.” GEO Group and Fighting for Florida’s Families each gave the PAC $1M in the week ended Oct. 9. Polls reported Oct. 13 run from Donalds up 11 to a tie (Division of Elections; Florida Politics; Newsweek). The Seminole Tribe, which has given Donalds’ PAC $5.5M, is suing DraftKings, whose subsidiary gave the PAC $500,000.