All eyes in Tampa are on the Community Investment Tax, the voter-approved, half-cent sales tax that funds major civic infrastructure, capital improvements and maintenance projects for Raymond James Stadium and Benchmark International Arena.
Since the CIT’s creation 28 years ago, it’s provided roughly $2.3 billion toward 757 capital improvement projects, everything from a half-dozen new or expanded libraries to 24 fire station projects, 70 intersections and the construction of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ stadium. But the CIT is under growing strain.
The Tampa Bay Rays’ new ownership group, eager to build a $2.3 billion stadium as part of a larger mixed-use development project that also would rebuild Hillsborough College and firmly plant the team’s roots in the region, is looking to peel off a portion of the CIT for its purposes…