The Rays' owners want Hillsborough's sales tax, and they are giving to its commission races

The owners want a county tax, and they give to the people who vote on it

The Tampa Bay Rays' owners and their companies have given at least $140,000 to three Hillsborough County commissioners up for reelection since the team's sale, Axios reports. Their board votes Nov. 10 on whether sales tax meant for roads and public buildings helps pay for a privately owned team's ballpark. Any Florida county a team asks for tax money can point to that vote. The three are Gwen Myers, Harry Cohen and Joshua Wostal.

Why it matters: The vote decides whether $360 million of Hillsborough's sales tax goes to the team's new Tampa ballpark. In August, the commission approved the ballpark deal, with the county paying up to about $796 million. The $360 million would be part of that share. No record ties any gift to a vote.

The story so far: Zalupski's group bought the Rays last year. Zalupski and Bill Cosgrove, chief executive of Ohio-based Union Home Mortgage, are the team's co-chairs. Ken Babby, the team's chief executive, runs its day-to-day business, and the investors include Heartland Dental founder Rick Workman. The sales tax would help pay for the ballpark deal the commission approved in August.

The deal plans to take $360 million of the county's share from Hillsborough's half-cent sales tax. That tax adds an extra half cent to each dollar of most purchases in the county. It pays for roads and public buildings, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

The three commissioners are Gwen Myers, Harry Cohen and Joshua Wostal, and all three are up for reelection Nov. 3. Axios reports they have received at least $140,000 combined from Rays owners and their companies since the sale. Myers and Cohen voted for the ballpark deal in August, and Wostal voted against it, the Business Observer reported.

The August vote, 5-2, approved a funding deal for a $2.36 billion ballpark. The rest of the cost falls to the Rays' stadium company, which shares the team's parent company and is a party to the ballpark deal. That company also pays any costs that run over the budget. Zalupski's group had bought the team on Sept. 30, 2025.

The Nov. 10 hearing and vote decide whether the ballpark joins the sales tax's list of projects. Commission chairperson Ken Hagan asked to hold that vote after the election, and the board agreed 5-2. "It's with the current board," he said, the Times reported.

What's new: Axios reported Oct. 13 that the owners' money began flowing to commissioners' campaigns within weeks of a Rays lobbyist's meetings with them. State records show a committee that took checks in the names of the team's control person and its chief executive has given to a commission candidate's committee.

What's next: The commission holds its sales-tax hearing and vote Nov. 10, a week after the Nov. 3 election.

Who owns the Rays

Zalupski, the founder and chief executive of Jacksonville home builder Dream Finders Homes, is the team's Major League Baseball control person and co-chair, the team's sale release says. Bill Cosgrove, chief executive of Ohio-based Union Home Mortgage, is the other co-chair. Ken Babby, who founded Fast Forward Sports Group, is the team's chief executive and runs its day-to-day business.

The release names an advisory board of investors: Dr. Rick Workman, Doug Hertz, Will Weatherford, Robert Skinner, Dan Doyle Jr. and Matt Silverman, with Fred Ridley as an independent member. More limited partners were to be named later. Former owner Stuart Sternberg keeps a 10% stake, Bay News 9 reported.

The sale price was not disclosed. Babby has put a number on it himself: "We bought a baseball team with no current home, no future home and paid $1.7 billion," he told Sports Business Journal. The Athletic reported that Workman, who founded Heartland Dental, is the group's third-largest investor, citing a person briefed on the sale.

What the owners want from Hillsborough taxpayers

The funding agreement's budget for the ballpark, on the Hillsborough College Dale Mabry campus, is $2,360,930,000. The county's share is "not to exceed" $796,010,300. Tampa's share is capped at $80 million.

The county money comes from several pots. Tourist tax bonds supply up to $263,010,300, plus a tourist tax reserve payment of up to $40 million. The half-cent Community Investment Tax supplies $360 million in four yearly $90 million payments. Other county funds add $103 million, and federal disaster recovery money adds $30 million.

The team's stadium company pays the rest of the cost, including overruns and design, the agreement says. Commissioners want to send the first $90 million of sales tax this year, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

On Aug. 28, the vote was 5-2. Ken Hagan, Harry Cohen, Gwen Myers, Christine Miller and Chris Boles voted yes; Joshua Wostal and Donna Cameron Cepeda voted no, the Business Observer reported. Three more agreements were pending after that vote: a ballpark license, a community benefits agreement and a construction funds trust.

Hagan, the commission chairperson, moved the sales-tax hearing to Nov. 10, and his motion passed 5-2. "Yes, it's after the election, but it's with the current board," he said, the Tampa Bay Times reported. After public comment, commissioners must vote to add the stadium to the list of projects the sales tax pays for. "I think we are beyond the point of no return on this deal," Cohen told FOX 13.

How the owners' money reaches the commission

A lobbyist for the Rays met six of the seven commissioners in late 2025, county records show, Axios reported. Within weeks, the team's owners and their businesses were putting tens of thousands of dollars into several of those commissioners' reelection campaigns.

Myers, Cohen and Wostal, all up for reelection, have received at least $140,000 combined from Rays owners and their companies since the sale, Axios reports. Most of it came before the board's May 20 vote on a nonbinding memorandum with the team, which Myers and Cohen backed and Wostal opposed.

The money went to both sides of that vote. Homes by WestBay, the company of limited partner Willy Nunn, gave Wostal's committee $50,000 on Oct. 2, months after he voted against the deal. Two of Wostal's donors had given to him more than a year before the sale, Axios reports.

Axios reports that gifts from companies owned by limited partners Nunn, Chris LaFace and Jeff Hills often arrived the same day as a stadium vote, or weeks before one. Cohen's committee, Hillsborough Together, got $13,000 from Homes by WestBay, Ripa & Associates and Eisenhower Management on March 31. Myers' committee got $25,000 from the same three companies a week before she voted yes on the memorandum.

After Cameron Cepeda spoke against the stadium money at an April 16 workshop, more than $40,000 flowed to her primary opponent, Stacy Hahn, Axios reported. Hahn, a Hillsborough school board member, beat Cameron Cepeda in the Aug. 18 primary with nearly 55% of the vote, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Hahn is a candidate and does not vote Nov. 10.

A new committee and the owners' checks

State records show a committee called Citizens for Tampa Bay's Future took 26 checks totaling $909,000 from June 24 to Oct. 9, by our sum. Its chairperson, treasurer and registered agent is Jason B. Blank.

The largest check, $241,012 on Oct. 9, is listed under the names Patrick O. Zalupski and Leah M. Thorpe of Jacksonville, occupation Construction. The record spells the surname "Zalupsk." A $7,500 check on Sept. 9 is listed to Kenneth R. Babby, occupation CEO, at a Tropicana Drive address in St. Petersburg.

Another $168,338 came on Sept. 22 from Bedford Capital LLC, a company that lists the same Strongsville, Ohio, street address as Union Home Mortgage's headquarters. No record we read says who owns Bedford Capital.

The committee has reported 19 expenditures totaling $275,255 through Oct. 7, by our sum. Of that, $268,500 went to 14 other political committees. Friends of Stacy Hahn got $22,500, and a committee named Friends of Christine Miller got $25,000 on Oct. 7. That committee's state record lists Wendy White as chair and does not name Commissioner Miller.

The committee's newest reported spending, on Oct. 7, came before the Oct. 9 Zalupski check. By our arithmetic, $633,745 of what it raised was not reported spent as of its latest filing. The record shows the committee has given to a commission candidate's committee; it does not show that any check funded a race.

Their side

"The Rays declined to comment," Axios reported. Myers, Cohen and Hahn did not respond to Axios. Wostal told Axios that some of the businesses that gave to him started before their owners joined the Rays: "I am very proud to have bipartisan financial support from across the private sector."

No record ties any of this money to a commissioner's vote.

The vote on Nov. 10

The commission holds its required sales-tax hearing on Nov. 10. Myers, Cohen and Wostal are on the Nov. 3 ballot first, and the vote is with the current board, Hagan said.

Sources we read

Tampa Bay Rays sale release on MLB.com, Sept. 30, 2025. Hillsborough County, Aug. 28, 2026. The Stadium Development and Funding Agreement, as posted by WFLA. Axios Tampa Bay, Oct. 13. Tampa Bay Times, Oct. 7, Oct. 13 and Aug. 18. FOX 13, Oct. 16. Business Observer, Aug. 28. Sports Business Journal, Oct. 2. Bay News 9. WUSF, citing The Athletic. Florida Division of Elections contribution, expenditure and committee records, read Oct. 22. Union Home Mortgage branch page.