Home /
STAR Bond Vote
- The city council voted today 3-2 to reimburse SK Baseball up to 55% of sales tax revenue produced from within the STAR Bond District, and in addition, I 'think' reserved an additional 20% for the City of Reno to purchase the current RTC Citicenter site from the Redevelopment Agency. This part of the deal was so confusing I couldn't keep up with the logistics, was anyone else watching and can fill us in on what it all means?
Rgj is reporting that the total disbursement for sales tax revenue is 10 percent to the school district, o 25 percent more shared by the school district, state and local governments, 32.5 percent for developer projects, and 32.5 percent to Reno Redevelopment Agency projects, but I picked up different numbers from the meeting I guess, I saw that 55% would go to the developers. Anyone else draw that conclusion from the meeting?
UPDATE: The following explanation was given to me about the sales tax breakdown: There are two sales tax revenue sources from the STAr Bond District: 1) The Stadium itself 2) Phase 2A (The restaurants). Also we have to break down the sales tax allocation; 25% goes to its normal distribution (by State law) 10% Goes to the School District (a city requirement) 10% Goes to the City of Reno (a city requirement) 55% Is left to be distributed by contract. So, here we go. On the Stadium, for the first ten years, the City and baseball will be splitting their percentages (10% + 55%). That means they EACH get 32.5% for ten years. For the final 10 years baseball will get 55% and the City will get its 10%. On Phase 2A it is just the opposite. For the first ten years, baseball will get 55% and the City will get its 10%. For the final 10 years the City and baseball will be splitting their percentages (10% + 55%). That means they EACH get 32.5%.
The projects eligible for STAR Bond reimbursement would still have to be approved by city council on an individual basis. This vote doesn't allocate the money, it sets the percentage to be allocated when the time comes.
Both Jessica Sferrazza and Sharon Zadra had issues with the $1 million annual floor payment required by the city and the developer's lack of willingness to renegotiate the deal. They also both were concerned that for this fiscal year, money was disproportionately used from Redevelopment District 2 (of which both council members's wards are a part of) to help make that floor payment, while only about 10% of the stadium actually resides in Redevelopment District 2.
Councilman Dave Aiazzi mentioned that this district was previously producing zero sales tax and near-zero property tax, and that now, the project is generating revneue for the city. He also mentioned that the goal of redeveloping downtown was to get people downtown, which is what the baseball stadium and district is acccomplishing.
The developers stated if the city pledged 55% of Freight House District sales tax revenue coming from the district to SK Baseball, they would complete Phase 2B of the Freight House District (restoration of the old freight house building) by 2012, and phases 3-6 (build out of the Mizpah lots, bowling stadium and Citicenter site) by 2014.
The City Council has the option to retain up to 75% of sales tax revenue collected from the STAR Bond district. So in addition, the city council voted to reserve the remaining sales tax anticipated revenue percentage available (20 percent-ish) for purchasing the current RTC Citicenter site from the Redevelopment Agency. Somehow, ultimately it will free up money to use downtown or to pay back the sewer fund which had to be dipped into to purchase the Citicenter site from the Regional Transportation Commission. This part of the deal confused the heck out of me so I am not even gonna try to insult your intelligence by interpreting it. I just know that the City is going to reserve an extra percentage of sales tax revenue to do this, and somehow in an indirect way it will allow the city to use the RTC citicenter as a catalyst for other things. This is because the city cannot directly use STAR Bond money for stuff like hiring police officers, paying down debt, paying for downtown maintenance etc. So this is the workaround.
Comments:
Post your commentsPosted by: Dennis - 6/23/2010 8:18:02 PM
I watched the meeting today I was thoroughly confused by the topic.