BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – A plan to fund a new Spurs arena at Hemisfair will be on every Bexar County ballot when early voting begins Monday morning.
Proposition B will ask whether to use the county’s existing venue tax to help fund up to $311 million of a new arena’s construction.
It would also raise the hotel occupancy portion of the tax from 1.75% to 2%. The short-term car rental tax portion would stay flat at 5%.
A separate ballot measure, Proposition A, will ask voters about using the same venue tax increase to help fund improvements around the Frost Bank Center to pave the way for year-round, rodeo-style operations.
Though Prop B only covers a portion of the arena’s projected $1.3 billion price tag, the rest of the funding scheme relies on it passing. If the ballot measure fails, the deal as it stands would fall apart and leave the team to negotiate a new deal or seek other options.
The Spurs’ lease on their current home, the county-owned Frost Bank Center on the East Side, lasts through the 2032 season.
Though fans and local officials have raised concerns about the team moving away if they don’t get a new arena, Spurs officials have largely avoided saying whether relocation to another city could be in the cards.
A sports economics expert told KSAT that even if Prop B fails, it would still be too early to be alarmed.
Read about the draft terms HERE.
The NBA arena is a cornerstone of the city’s larger, multi-billion-dollar plan, known as “Project Marvel,” to redevelop Hemisfair into a sports and entertainment district. Other projects include renovating a federal courthouse into an events venue, creating a land bridge over IH-35, and expanding the Henry B. González Convention Center.
The run-up to the election has been filled with news conferences, political mailers, text messages, and block walkers.
The Spurs have bankrolled a well-funded political action committee, Win Together, to sell voters on Prop B.
An opposition PAC, Defending Public Money for Public Good, is linked to one of the arena project’s most outspoken critics, COPS/Metro, an activist coalition of local community groups.
Gabby Trevino, a special projects organizer with COPS/Metro, was out block walking Sunday on the eve of early voting with a handful of red flyers telling voters, “Billionaires get richer. You pay the tax.”
The sales pitch, she said, tends to be “we just think that money could go towards other projects in the city."
The ways the venue tax can be used are limited by state law. But while the tax was created to help fund the construction of Spurs’ current home, the Frost Bank Center, voters also approved a host of other projects in 2008 worth $415 million.
Supporters, however, frame the county funding portion as a tax on visitors.
Rob Clifford has been talking to his neighbors as he does his canvassing as a Democratic Party precinct chairman. The party doesn’t have an official stance, Clifford says, but “I share my opinions and I share the information from the ‘yes’ team.”
“When you look at the benefits of the stadium and the whole proposition, the way the basic terms are laid out, to me it’s a no-brainer,” he told KSAT.
Beyond the county’s share, the City of San Antonio would pay up to $489 million under the current plan, and the Spurs would pay $500 million, plus any cost overruns.
The city would pay its share through a bond backed by special tax capture districts and lease revenues.
Part of the current deal calls for the Spurs to build $1.4 billion worth of new development, including a boutique hotel for visitors, retail, housing, and office space. The property tax dollars from that new development would be captured in the Hemisfair Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) and used to help pay down the city’s bond payments.
Similarly, the city created a new, three-mile “project finance zone” (PFZ) around the proposed arena site, the Alamodome, and the convention center that can capture hotel-related state taxes to be used toward projects at the three sites.
Finally, developers would pay ground leases to build the associated development, and the Spurs would pay rent on the new arena. The money would also be used to pay off the debt.
The city’s share of the funding does not require a public vote, but Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has repeatedly called for one anyhow. Putting it on a ballot, though, would require city council approval.
Read more: