The possibility that a deal for a new Bengals stadium may collapse has raised questions about whether it also would mean the death of the half-cent-on-a-dollar sales tax to pay for the football stadium and a new field for the Reds.
The tax was approved by voters in March 1996, but Hamilton County commissioners stipulated it would be rescinded if a lease with one of the two teams wasn't signed by June 1, 1997.
A lease was signed May 29, although Bengals President Mike Brown has said he will exercise a clause that allows him to terminate it Jan. 31 if the final pieces of the deal aren't in place.
No one knows for certain whether that would mean the end of the tax.
''It's our understanding that the tax goes away'' if the Bengals deal dies, said Troy Blackburn, the Bengals' director of stadium development.
County officials said Tuesday they don't know whether the sales tax would die if the Bengals deal does.
City Manager John Shirey said he doesn't know either, but added, ''There's no reason for Armageddon to occur here. There is no reason to talk in those terms.''
By the end of this year, county officials estimate they will have collected about $48 million for stadium construction. If the tax ends, money already collected would be used to pay down county debt.
Stadium work can't begin until the city and county reach a broad riverfront development agreement. The county needs about 10 acres of city-con trolled land to build the $400.3 million stadium. The city first wants the county to pay for some riverfront infrastructure, including $14 million toward the city's $120.5 million overhaul of Fort Washington Way.
Mr. Shirey said the whole matter could be resolved if the county would just pay the $14 million the city wants to help reconfigure the city's east-west connector.
But County Commissioner John Dowlin argues the city-county riverfront disagreement is about a lot more than $14 million. He figures that the city's demands - including the demand that the Bengals stadium be moved farther west to its current site to open up the riverfront - add about $200 million to the county's stadium and riverfront costs.
Mr. Dowlin said that if the county pays all those additional costs, it won't have enough money to build a new stadium for the Reds. A renovation of Cinergy Field would be the county's only option for the baseball team, he said.
''The question is, is that what the voters voted for?'' he said. ''The voters voted for two new stadiums. The voters did not vote to renovate the riverfront and the voters did not vote to renovate Cinergy Field.''
Ohio Senate President Richard Finan, R-Evendale, said the continuing city-county ''fistfight'' hurts the project and ''gives our constituents reason to be concerned.''
''I have said to the local people in Cincinnati - and the people in Cleveland, too - that passing money for stadiums in this General Assembly is not the easiest thing to do in the world,'' Mr. Finan said.
Mr. Brown said the city had not lived up to its word to transfer land for the stadium and had piled on demands for projects that having nothing to do with the stadium.
Attorney Tim Mara, who led the fight against the sales tax increase in 1996, said he agrees with Mr. Brown that the city is demanding extras in exchange for its land.
''But he's no less guilty than they,'' he said. Voters didn't expect the Bengals to get three riverfront practice fields and payments if the stadium opens late when they approved the sales tax, Mr. Mara said.
Mr. Mara added that he doesn't think the tax would automatically die if the Bengals' deal fell through. ''Frankly, we all know this is a bunch of baloney,'' he said.
County Commissioner Tom Neyer Jr. said that Mr. Brown's talk of the Jan. 31 deadline only hurts the delicate city-county negotiations. ''The addition of incendiary rhetoric . . . and drop-dead ultimatums grates on already raw nerves,'' Mr. Neyer said.
City Councilman Dwight Tillery said Mr. Brown would do everyone a favor if he would just be quiet and cooperate with the city and county. ''The people, they've really had it with Mike Brown,'' Mr. Tillery said. ''I think the taxpayers have been more than generous with Mike Brown, and he shows little gratitude.''
Mr. Brown said the Jan. 31 deadline is a construction date set forth in the lease because if the stadium isn't on its way by then, it could never be finished by the target date of August 2000.
Michael Hawthorne and Anne Michaud contributed to this report.
BENGALS' OPTION: CLEVELAND
