There's a new legislative proposal to get state money to the city of Hartford for its baseball stadium development project.
An earlier proposal would have sent state admissions tax revenue back to the city each year. The city estimated that would have been around $426,000 annually, and would have helped pay off $4.26 million in annual debt service payments.
Now, the legislature's new finance proposal apparently includes provisions that would allow state to borrow money for the project using something called "tax increment financing."
According to a report written by legislative and fiscal analysts, the state would borrow the money the city needs, and the bonds would be "backed by a portion of the incremental state sales and hotel tax revenue generated at the city’s Downtown North development, excluding any revenues generated by the proposed stadium for primarily hosting AA minor league baseball games."
The city's director of development services said he was unaware of the measure.
One wrinkle presented by the language is this: the bill apparently contemplates a hotel in the $350 million development project just north of Hartford's downtown, but previous public discussion of the project has not.
Bob Landino is the project's developer. In an interview, he said he was unaware of the bill. Asked about the prospect of a hotel, he said he is "exploring every option available to us. Hospitality is one, but we do not have any serious consideration of a hotel at the present time."
In the report, the state's legislative analysts said that "this proposal will result in a potentially significant General Fund debt service cost to the state but the amount and timing are uncertain at this time."