MA House Majority Leader William Nagle "said yesterday
that Democratic legislators stand ready to negotiate" with
Patriots Owner Robert Kraft "if his plan to move the team to
Connecticut falls through," according to Lehigh & Cassidy in
a front-page report in the BOSTON GLOBE. Nagle: "I think
the sense of the Democratic members is that there would be
some willingness to at least talk. I think the fact that
there would be discussions would be different, and I think
he should hear that the membership is interested in doing
that." Nagle, who is the "second most powerful man in the
House," behind only Speaker Thomas Finneran, on whether
Finneran "had authorized him to float the possibility" of
further negotiations: "I think the fact that I am saying it
is significant in itself. I am the number two guy in the
House." Nagle "emphasized" that he and Finneran "are on the
same page" on the matter. The Patriots declined comment on
Nagle's comments (Lehigh & Cassidy, BOSTON GLOBE, 11/25).
EVERYBODY PAYS: A "hidden federal subsidy targeted for
elimination in Washington will help cover" CT's deal to
bring the Patriots to Hartford, "shifting tens of millions
[of] dollars of the project's cost onto taxpayers around the
nation," according to Cosmo Macero of the BOSTON HERALD. By
issuing the bonds, CT "would use its credit rating to cut
the borrowing costs, and the investors buying the bonds
would escape paying federal income taxes on the interest
they would earn." Federal tax receipts "would thus be lower
than they would be if the bonds were issued in some taxable
form, by the Patriots or some other private enterprise. And
the borrowing cost would be higher" (BOSTON HERALD, 11/25).
