TAMPA — Hillsborough County commissioners are set to vote Tuesday on the first big chunk of public money for the Tampa Bay Rays' new ballpark, and the timing is awkward: it comes one week after Florida voters passed Amendment 3, which will cut into the property taxes counties live on.
The same meeting includes a public hearing on banning concentrated 7-OH, a potent compound sold in some kratom products.
What's on the table for the stadium
The stadium items were scheduled before the election. According to the county's agenda, as reported by FOX 13, commissioners will consider three things:
- An initial $90 million. The county would add the ballpark as a new capital project and move $90 million out of reserves in its Community Investment Tax extension fund to set up the stadium's budget for fiscal year 2027. Any more county money would need separate votes later.
- Making the stadium eligible for the sales tax. Commissioners would add the ballpark to the list of projects that can be paid for with the renewed Community Investment Tax, the half-cent sales tax voters first approved in 1996 to help build Raymond James Stadium and renewed for 15 years in 2024.
- Up to $263 million in bonds. The county would be authorized to borrow that much, backed by its third- and sixth-cent tourist development taxes, the hotel bed taxes paid mostly by visitors. Those bonds still have to go through a separate court validation process.
Why Amendment 3 matters here
Amendment 3 raises the homestead exemption on non-school property taxes from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. The nonpartisan Florida Policy Institute estimates Hillsborough could lose close to $1 billion in revenue over the first two years, FOX 13 reported.
Most of the county's stadium money isn't directly exposed to that. More than 80% of its planned contribution is expected to come from tourist taxes and sales taxes, not property taxes. But roughly $100 million would come from other county funds, and that's the part that has some commissioners rethinking.
Commissioner Chris Boles, who backed the stadium funding plan before, told Creative Loafing this week the county may need to take another look at its commitment because of Amendment 3, according to FOX 13.
Commissioner Harry Cohen argues the opposite. “The passage of Amendment 3 actually makes it more important for us to have opportunities like this, because this is what allows us to expand our tax base,” Cohen told FOX 13. He said the only way to make up lost homestead revenue without raising taxes or fees is to grow commercial and non-homestead property, “and that's exactly what this deal does.”
Cohen said the county likely will hold a workshop in early 2027 on how to absorb the Amendment 3 losses, and noted the next county budget doesn't pass until next fall.
The city of Tampa's share is separate and smaller. Tampa has committed $80 million, to be financed with bonds, and the property tax changes aren't expected to affect that plan.
The 7-OH hearing
Also on Tuesday's agenda is a 10 a.m. public hearing on an ordinance banning the sale of concentrated 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH. The compound occurs naturally in kratom at low levels but can be concentrated into much stronger opioid-like pills and liquids. The proposal leaves natural kratom, including whole-leaf products and teas, legal, Spectrum Bay News 9 reported.
“This is not kratom. This is a synthetic derivative of kratom that people are using and it has killed or been implicated in the deaths of 34 people in Hillsborough County in the last two years, according to our own medical examiner's office,” Cohen told Bay News 9.
Florida's attorney general issued an emergency rule last year classifying 7-OH above certain thresholds as a Schedule I controlled substance, but that rule could expire in 2027. Cohen said the county ordinance would keep a ban in place locally if it does. Commissioners voted unanimously last month to move the proposal forward, FOX 13 reported, and could vote on it after Tuesday's hearing.
How to watch
The meeting is at County Center, 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., in the second-floor boardroom. It streams live on the county's meeting page, on YouTube and on the county's HTV cable channels, Spectrum 637 and Frontier 22.
TBO will update this story with the results of the votes.