Despite objections from Republican legislators, MD's
Democratically-controlled Board of Public Works yesterday gave
"swift and unanimous" approval to a deal to build a $200M,
70,000-seat stadium for the Browns, according to the Baltimore
SUN. John Frece writes, if NFL owners approve the team move in
January, groundbreaking could be as early as March. For their
part, Republican lawmakers are concerned about the level of
revenue needed from the lottery. The preliminary financing plan
for the stadium calls for $20M in lottery revenue for FY '96,
$32M in '97, and $35M each in '98 and '99. But in the eight
years lottery revenue has been used to finance Oriole Park,
revenues have averaged just under $21M and have never exceeded
$26.7M. One delegate predicts the project could run almost $42M
in the red (Baltimore SUN, 11/16). The WASHINGTON POST reports
MD Gov. Parris Glendening may take out newspaper ads to bolster
the claim of economic benefits for the state. State Sen. Brian
Frosh calls Glendening's claim no tax money will be used "right,
but it is misleading." Frosh adds: "It doesn't matter whether
its tax dollars or lottery dollars. It's money that could go
into other uses, such as school construction" (WASHINGTON POST,
11/16).
