By Cindi Andrews
Enquirer staff writer

Hamilton County leaders fear the state is about to renege on a promise to pay $14 million for the county's two new stadiums, deepening concerns about how the county is going to cover its construction debts in coming years.

"We are in probably the most serious financial situation in our history because of our lease with the Bengals," County Commissioner Phil Heimlich said Tuesday. "The last thing we need is another promise to be broken."

In a 1998 budget bill, Ohio's General Assembly said it intended to give the county up to $81 million for Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ball Park. To date, the state has paid $67 million, and the county expected the final, $14 million installment to come from the two-year state capital budget that begins in 2005.

However, Hamilton County's share of the capital budget is expected to total just $17 million to $20 million, and some political and corporate leaders have other ideas about how to spend it.

The money has become a weapon in a continuing struggle among factions of the county Republican Party, while the business community covets it for other projects such as the Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

State Rep. Bill Seitz of Green Township and several other GOP lawmakers said Tuesday they did not recall the state promising stadium funding.

They also say one General Assembly can't legally be held to the promises of a previous one. The 1998 budget bill said just that.

Seitz also noted that the money comes from state bonds, or loans, that are ultimately repaid through the General Revenue Fund. That fund has been shored up with a temporary half-cent state sales tax that was passed by the GOP-controlled General Assembly but later criticized by the GOP-controlled Board of Hamilton County Commissioners.

"I just think it's interesting," Seitz said. "I'm going to have to figure out what is their view. It sounds like it's 'Don't spend money on anybody except us.' "

He and several other lawmakers declined to commit to a position Tuesday on the $14 million for the stadiums. Gov. Bob Taft's press secretary, Orest Holubec, also was noncommittal, saying the governor's office would work with county and city leaders to determine priorities. The capital budget will probably be decided after the November elections.

However, conservative state Rep. Tom Brinkman, a Heimlich ally, said he fears some colleagues have already made up their minds against stadium funding because of anger over the sales tax issue.

"I think they've just kind of moved on," said Brinkman, of Mount Lookout. "That's a past General Assembly's promise, tough luck."

Lone Democratic Commissioner Todd Portune, who joined with Heimlich to pass a resolution calling for repeal of the temporary sales tax, lashed out at lawmakers Tuesday: "I think the public is fed up with that type of political gamesmanship and blackmail and would be shocked to think that because the commissioners of Hamilton County have an opinion ... that we should be retaliated against in this manner."

Because of weaker than expected growth in the county's stadium sales tax, the stadium fund could come up as much as $285 million short over the next three decades, county budget officials estimate.

While the political drama plays out, Doug Moormann, vice president of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, is trying to bring county, city and business leaders to consensus on priorities.

A similar effort in 2002 produced a list that was agreed upon by Cincinnati and Hamilton County leaders, the chamber and the Cincinnati Business Committee. Stadium funding topped that list.

Moormann's group will attempt to whittle down a $50 million wish list to a number closer to the expected $17 million to $20 million in funding. The wish list includes the Freedom Center, the Sabin Convention Center expansion and renovations of Fountain Square and the Washington Park area in Over-the-Rhine.

Moormann said he is hoping the county will create more room for some of the other projects by settling for half its $14 million in the next budget and waiting until 2007 for the rest.

But the county can't do that, Heimlich said, because the state can write checks only up to 18 months after construction is finished, and stadium construction was officially finished in April 2004.

Said Brinkman: "Before we start funding the Underground Railroad Freedom Center or other crazy things, we need to keep our promise on the stadiums."

E-mail candrews@enquirer.com