If the Cincinnati Reds find someplace outside Hamilton County to call home, the millions in sales tax money being collected to build a ballpark won't follow the team.
Instead, that money would be used to pay off the Cincinnati Bengals' $400.3 million riverfront stadium complex sooner, county officials said.
"The (football) debt will just be paid off sooner, and the tax would go away earlier," said Commission President Bob Bedinghaus.
The half-cent-on-a-dollar sales tax increase that voters approved in 1996 to build homes for the teams brings in about $4 million each month and is expected to generate about $50 million this year.
Of that, 30 percent goes to property owners in the form of tax rebates. The rest goes toward the county's stadium fund.
The interest earned on the money goes to the county's general fund. But Commissioner Tom Neyer Jr. said that's no incentive to drag out the negotiations process with the Reds.
"The point is to get to a conclusion that's in the best interests of the taxpayers of Hamilton County," he said.
SIDES TALKING BUT NOT BUDGING
STADIUM IN KY. IS TOUGH FIT
PREVIOUS STADIUM STORIES
REDS PAGE
