House committee takes up revised PawSox stadium plan

By John Krinjak

Email: jkrinjak@abc6.com

Twitter: @johnkrinjakABC6

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Four months after the Senate passed its plan to build a stadium for the PawSox on the old Apex site, the House Finance Committee finally took up the plan Thursday night–with some big changes.

"It’s an interesting framework. It’s one that I’m very hopeful that we can utilize," said House Speaker Nick Mattiello. 

Under this plan, bonds to finance the park would be issued by the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency–not guaranteed by the state.

Taxes–such as those from players’ income taxes, taxes from ticket sales, and property taxes from new businesses going up around the park–would all go into a special account to leverage against a potential default by the team.

Supporters say that will reduce risk to taxpayers.

"Clearly this gives them the risk mitigation they wanted, and clearly we wanted this development–and without it we’re going to continue to have vacant areas," said Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien. 

Because the state is not backing the bonds in this proposal, the interest rate to borrow the money will be higher, but at this point no one can say how much higher.

"I can just say it will definitely be more. More expensive on an annual basis," said House Fiscal Advisor Sharon Reynolds Ferland. 

Conservatives say the House plan is riskier than the Senate one–and reminiscent of the 38 Studios debacle.

"There we were promised that bond insurance would actually eliminate risk to the taxpayers. We know how that movie ended. In this case we’re asking a small redevelopment authority to bear the brunt of the investment. Who pays the bill when it defaults?" said Rhode Island Libertarian Party Chair Pat Ford. 

All this as team officials play coy about whether they’ll be on board.

"We won’t have any comment yet until we’ve read and studied the proposal," said PawSox President George Steinberg.

When asked how serious of an option Worcester is for the team, Steinberg said, "Best to ask that to Worcester."

Speaker Mattiello told me that if the committee finds this new framework does not work, the House will not move forward with it.

Meanwhile Senate Finance Chair William Conley says he’s glad to see the project moving ahead, and looks forward to continuing the process.

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