PHOENIX — The Arizona Senate late on Thursday night voted to approve House Bill 2704, the tax recapture bill that will fund renovations at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The action passed 19-11.
The amended legislation will head back to the Arizona House of Representatives before it can land on Gov. Katie Hobbs’ desk to sign into law or veto. The House adjourned until Monday.
This bill would reinvest sales taxes collected at the ballpark back into renovations. Chase Field is owned by the Maricopa County Stadium District, and the Diamondbacks’ lease runs out in 2027.
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If the legislation is signed off on, the MLB club would then have to take the next steps of coming to a new lease agreement with Maricopa County, a separate measure that could not be completed without the Diamondbacks and local entities locking in funding to update the ballpark.
On Tuesday, State Senate President Warren Petersen told The Mike Broomhead Show on KTAR News 92.3 FM that he believed the amended version of HB 2704 had the support to pass in the Senate, then the House and ultimately get the signature of the governor.
“The governor is on board with it, and I believe we’ve got support,” Petersen said of the Chase Field bill. “I believe we’ll have the votes in the House and the Senate. It won’t be in the budget, but it’ll be a separate bill that will move along with the budget. We had to hold off because due to, since it was what we call a money bill … you can’t move them until you’re sure that everything balances out.”
The Joint Legislative Budget Committee estimated that the bill would reduce Arizona’s state general fund by $9.2 million annually and the local funds by $5.8 million more.
The House passed the bill 35-25 on Feb. 26, and it has since undergone several amendments during its extended stay in the Senate.
Amendments approved by the Senate include the removal of income taxes for employees at the stadium that would have been used to fund the stadium projects. The changes also capped what the local government would contribute — $500 million that will be adjusted yearly for inflation. The total funding will be boosted by the D-backs’ $250 million in contributions.
Another change increased the county’s tax investment into the stadium to match the city’s. The legislation includes penalties if the D-backs were to leave the venue before 2055.
The funds will address infrastructure such as the HVAC system, plumbing and electrical, along with more visible changes like the scoreboard.
The legislation has received bipartisan support and pushback, with Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and Maricopa County Board Chairman Thomas Galvin airing concerns about diverting funds from other uses such as K-12 education and public safety. The team has claimed tax dollars dedicated to education, jails and public safety will be exempt.
In March, Gallego wrote Hobbs a letter laying out her concerns with how the legislation would impact taxpayers, suggesting the original bill did not contain the proper oversight. Galvin, a month later, wrote an op-ed for AZCentral.com that explained how he opposed amendments that drew money from the county’s general fund.
On May 1, representatives from the D-backs, the state, the city, the county and the governor’s office met behind closed doors to further negotiate.
“I think we are close to a more fiscally responsible bill that has more controls in it,” Gallego told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show on June 4. “I’m hopeful that before the legislation leaves, we can have a bill that keeps the Diamondbacks in place but has more transparency about public dollars and more accountability.”
The club has been clear about its intentions to stay in downtown, where it has played since 1998.
“We’re trying to fix a public asset that we don’t even own so that we can stay downtown and play downtown and renovate it and modernize it to the level that we think our fans deserve,” D-backs president and CEO Derrick Hall told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta on June 12.
The Diamondbacks have encouraged and pressured fans to get involved. The team set up a stand at Chase Field during home games imploring fans to contact their legislators, including pre-written postcards to send to representatives.
Hall sent an email to D-backs season ticket holders with the subject, “Help Us Keep the D-backs in Arizona.”
The email and the stand at Chase Field direct fans to a website called “Keep Arizona Major League,” which contains a frequently asked questions section. One of such questions reads, “Is it really possible that the Diamondbacks could leave Arizona?” the answer to which involved the phrase “we know from experience, seeing the Coyotes moving to Utah, that these things can happen.”
All while the Diamondbacks saw the largest year-over-year attendance increase in Major League Baseball last year (up 4,700 per game) and continue to field a busier ballpark this year by 2,794 per game.
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