Taxpayers May Have To Help Finance Houston Sports Authority

Taxpayers May Be Forced To Help Fund Houston Sports Facility Operator

Harris County (TX) taxpayers "may have to inject up to" $7M annually into the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority (HCHSA) for the next two years "due to a financial crisis sparked by the souring of bonds used to build Minute Maid Park, Reliant Stadium and the Toyota Center," according to Bradley Olson of the HOUSTON CHRONICLE. HCHSA is "facing balloon payments on $117[M] in variable-rate bonds," and now is "obliged to pay off the debt in five years instead of 23 years." That would require $24M a year -- a "figure that, together with more than $30[M] in additional obligations, would push the authority to the brink of insolvency." The alternative is to "convince major banks to provide lines of credit that would give the authority a two-year window to refinance," and that "would cost $7[M] a year." To "make up the difference, Harris County may have to pick up some of those expenses with property tax revenue." But HCHSA Chair J. Kent Friedman said, "No matter what happens here, there's absolutely no way the taxpayers of Harris County of the city of Houston could be negatively impacted." Friedman said that even in a "worst-case scenario in which the authority cannot make its payments, that failure would not impact taxpayers, only investors in its bonds" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 10/27).