John Romano: Can tax money be used for a Rays stadium? Perhaps through a backdoor.

TAMPA, Fla. — As loopholes go, this one could turn out to be enormous. Large enough to squeeze, say, a $467 million gift through it.

We’re talking about the Rays ballpark plans and a pot of money in Hillsborough County that was never intended to be used to build a stadium.

Precisely two years ago, the Hillsborough County Commission settled on the details and language of a referendum — later approved by voters by a 51-48 margin — that extended the life of a half-cent community investment tax.

At the time, all seven commissioners appeared to lock arms around this notion:

Proceeds from the tax could not be used to build a new stadium.

Simple. Unambiguous. Direct.

Except it didn’t turn out that way.

Unlike the original version of the half-cent sales tax passed in 1996, Commissioner Joshua Wostal wanted the 2024 referendum to be stripped of any mention of stadiums being eligible. But there were a couple of sticking points.

No. 1, Hillsborough’s lease with the Bucs obligated the county to keep Raymond James Stadium up to NFL standards. That meant some of the tax money might be needed for renovations at a facility that was approaching its 30th birthday.

No. 2, Wostal’s motion to change the wording to specifically exclude “new” stadiums came after the county had already posted legal notices about the upcoming referendum. Changing the wording would require another legal notice and public hearing, and the county was dealing with other deadlines to ensure it was on the November ballot.

So the referendum went ahead with language that permitted funds to be used for “public facilities” which kept the Raymond James renovations on the table, but did not specifically forbid the construction of a new stadium.

In other words:

You’re welcome, Rays.

The baseball team clearly interprets the “public facilities” portion of the referendum to open the door to using as much as $467 million from the half-cent sales tax toward building their desired stadium across the street from RayJay at the Hillsborough College campus.

Wostal disagrees. And he’s assuming some angry taxpayer in Hillsborough County will challenge it with a lawsuit, arguing that it was the understanding — and, thus, the intent — of voters that the referendum forbade funds from going toward a new stadium.

“There’s no way that the county attorney’s office can meet the litmus test of voter intent,” Wostal told me Wednesday. “The county even canvassed with the messaging that no money would used for new professional sports stadiums. And voter intent always overrides legislative intent.”

The idea of “voter intent” is getting a little into the weeds for me. Apparently for the county attorney’s office, too. County attorney Julia Mandell told commissioners on Wednesday that she would seek guidance from outside counsel to determine whether those tax funds could be used for a new Rays stadium.

Wostal has put together a video mashup of various commissioners — including chair Ken Hagan, who has been a proponent of the Rays plan — pooh-poohing the idea of future revenues from the sales tax being used to build a new stadium.

So, you might ask, what’s the big deal? If commissioners in 2024 were united in their opposition to using tax money for new facilities, can’t they simply refuse to open the county’s purse strings for a baseball stadium in 2026?

That’s certainly a possibility, but circumstances have changed in the past year. Specifically, an unpopular Rays ownership group has been replaced, and the new owners have more political clout in Tallahassee. Specifically, Gov. Ron DeSantis has gone from being an anti-public stadium guy to looking like he’s auditioning for a job in the Rays front office.

“I don’t support giving taxpayer dollars to professional sports stadiums, period,” DeSantis said at a news conference in 2022 when he vetoed a youth sports/spring training complex for the Rays in Pasco County.

And yet, he’s championing the idea of rebuilding the entire Hillsborough College campus in order to provide acreage for the Rays to put up a stadium and a mixed-use development complex on state-owned land.

“They’ll have every excuse in the book,” Wostal said concerning the possibility of commissioners changing their position from 2024 to 2026. “To my understanding, the governor is aggressively leaning on what they view as the swing vote.”

So, is it fair to use public money that clearly was not intended for a baseball stadium?

Depends on your perspective, I suppose. If you’re behind the idea of keeping Major League Baseball in Tampa Bay, as well as the potential economic engine of a new work/entertainment district, then this project seems like a perfect fit for a community investment tax.

And, as lawyers will point out, the referendum did not specifically dismiss new stadium construction.

On the other hand, if you don’t believe in public funds going to private sports franchises, then this looks like a backdoor attempt to hijack money that was intended for public safety, infrastructure, schools and transportation.

And, as other lawyers will point out, a baseball stadium is not how the tax was sold to voters.