Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Rain Delay on Council Vote
Please enjoy this presentation of "Legal Eagles" starring Robert Redford.
Councilwoman Cropp, within her rights as the chair, removed the bill on the stadium from the agenda for another two weeks. She says she can come up with up to $350 million in private financing for the stadium in its original location. Good luck.
This is a real risky move. If she can somehow come up with private financing, even if it's "only" 100 million, she'll be a hero. MLB can't say "No we'd rather take the money from the public" can they? MLB will most likely amend the deal to fit the new parameters, with the public still taking a big hit and responsible for any overruns.
If she can't get the money - or gets a paltry percentage of the cost - she'll look like a fool, who tabled the measure as a last ditch attempt knowing her RFK proposal would not go through.
Evidence suggests that the council members believe the "fool version" to be true. When Cropp moved first to table the bill, she could not get the votes. She used her chair powers to move it two weeks later. Remember this only needs to be approved by Dec 31st, so there should be no big rush to get it approved. I can't believe that if the council thought it was possible for her to get this money, that they wouldn't have at least explored the option for 2 weeks. Of course, the seven in favor of it could simply be lackeys for the Mayor or afraid their personal projects that are being promised money could be hurt by a new deal.
Councilwoman Cropp, within her rights as the chair, removed the bill on the stadium from the agenda for another two weeks. She says she can come up with up to $350 million in private financing for the stadium in its original location. Good luck.
This is a real risky move. If she can somehow come up with private financing, even if it's "only" 100 million, she'll be a hero. MLB can't say "No we'd rather take the money from the public" can they? MLB will most likely amend the deal to fit the new parameters, with the public still taking a big hit and responsible for any overruns.
If she can't get the money - or gets a paltry percentage of the cost - she'll look like a fool, who tabled the measure as a last ditch attempt knowing her RFK proposal would not go through.
Evidence suggests that the council members believe the "fool version" to be true. When Cropp moved first to table the bill, she could not get the votes. She used her chair powers to move it two weeks later. Remember this only needs to be approved by Dec 31st, so there should be no big rush to get it approved. I can't believe that if the council thought it was possible for her to get this money, that they wouldn't have at least explored the option for 2 weeks. Of course, the seven in favor of it could simply be lackeys for the Mayor or afraid their personal projects that are being promised money could be hurt by a new deal.
