The extra pennies you've spent for a year now on everything from luxury cars to pantyhose in Hamilton County already have contributed tens of millions of dollars to the county's stadium fund.
In 20 years, the extra half-cent sales tax levied to pay for the stadiums will have poured almost $1.2 billion into county coffers, according to an analysis of tax receipts by The Enquirer.
But is that enough?
The tax receipts have become an issue because the growing price tags of new homes for the Cincinnati Bengals and Cincinnati Reds raise questions about whether the half-cent tax can cover the costs. Hamilton County Commission President Bob Bedinghaus, a former banker who developed the sales-tax plan and became the county's point man on stadiums, has said repeatedly it can.
"There is no question we can get the job done," he said.
The $1.2 billion projection helps explain that attitude.
The county began collecting the tax last August and collected $11.8 million in the first year. The Enquirer figured long-term tax-receipt projections by calculating a 12-month estimate for 1997 and then increasing the annual collection by 5 percent each year.
Five percent is the average rate that state sales tax receipts grow each year. County officials are using that rate in their projections. The Enquirer's projections showed that the tax will have generated almost $1.2 billion by 2016 - the 20th full year that the tax will have been collected, assuming it stays in place that long. So far, the county has spent less than $5 million on expenses related to the new stadiums.
But even with such large projections, nobody can say for sure whether 20 years' worth of tax receipts will be enough.
Hamilton County officials do not have a firm price for the Bengals' new Paul Brown Stadium complex. The total is expected to be more than $300 million.
The cost of the Reds stadium is unknown because the county and team have not signed an agreement to build a ballpark.
Preliminary estimates made by a county consultant plus the county's offer in May to build the team a $220 million stadium add up to a ballpark price tag of more than $300 million.
Another $10 million here, $20 million there - the numbers start to add up, and $1.2 billion doesn't look quite as big.
County Commissioner John Dowlin worries that the next generation's commissioners will simply keep the tax longer to cover whatever astronomical price tags the stadiums ultimately carry - a possibility he called "disturbing."
The ballot language approved to levy the half-cent sales tax increase didn't include a specific year for the tax to end. Commissioners promised that they would kill the tax as soon as the stadium debt was paid. They estimated that it would take 20 years.
At least two other communities are succeeding in paying off ballparks faster than expected.
In Maricopa County - home of the Arizona Diamondbacks' Bank- One Ballpark - the Maricopa County Stadium District expects to pay off its $240 million for the stadium before it opens in 1998. The county levied a quarter-cent sales tax increase to build the ballpark.
The city of Arlington, Texas, expects to pay off its debt for the Texas Rangers' new stadium - The Ballpark in Arlington - in 10 years instead of 17, as originally predicted. The city levied a half-cent sales tax to fund its stadium.
Mr. Bedinghaus said the county would like to pay off its stadium project early, too.
"The sales-tax revenue is the strongest revenue stream you can put in place," he said.
