Bengals balk at tax plan
Admissions hike could sink stadium deal
BY ALLEN HOWARD
The Cincinnati EnquirerCincinnati Bengals president and general manager Mike Brown criticized the city Sunday for its plans to increase Cincinnati's admissions tax and extend its earnings tax to visiting entertainers and sports professionals.
Mr. Brown warned that the proposal is late in the game and could halt a delicate arrangement between the Bengals and Hamilton County on stadium financing.
''We have been talking for the last two years about a (sales) tax to finance stadiums, then suddenly the city comes up with another tax,'' Mr. Brown said. ''This is a major interruption and will have to be dealt with immediately.''
County officials were more cautious in their response, although the president of the Ohio Senate also expressed some concerns about the proposed tax hike.
Five Cincinnati City Council members announced the plan at a news conference Sunday, saying the plan would honor the city's pledge to give the public schools $100 million over 20 years. The pledge was part of the deal for the sales taxes for new stadiums.
The council majority coalition's plan calls for the tax on tickets to for-profit events to go from 3 percent to 8.85 percent between 2000 and 2019. The money would be used to fix the Cincinnati Public Schools' buildings.
The plan also would require visiting entertainers and sports professionals to pay the city's 2.1 percent earnings tax this year.
Voters passed a county sales tax hike last year to finance two stadiums - one for the Bengals and one for the Reds - in an effort to keep the teams in Cincinnati.
Mr. Brown said the arrangements to get the new stadiums just makes the Bengals comparable with average cities in the National Football League.
''Any kind of new tax that will affect attendance by adding more to ticket prices will put us right back at the bottom of the peg where we are now,'' he said.
The team is selling seat licenses now for the new stadium that allow season ticketholders to pick their seat selections and eventually purchase tickets - on which they will have to pay the admissions tax. Some fans have complained about having to buy the costly seat licenses. About half of the 58,000 licenses cost either $300 or $480, but some go as high as $1,500.
The admissions tax is levied on the portion of an admission price greater than $1.05.
Under the current tax, the charge on a $10 ticket is 27 cents; with the tax at 8.85 percent, the charge on a $10 ticket would be about 79 cents.
In 1996, the average Bengals ticket at Cinergy Field was $35. The tax on that $35 ticket was $1.01 last year; it would have been $3 under the city proposal. For a season ticket holder paying $480 a year, the tax would rise from $14.44 to $41.73.
Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus, who led the drive for the sales tax, said the admissions tax hike ''goes counter to our plans not to have any kind of tax on tickets that might affect attendance.''
Officials of the Cincinnati Reds, who are negotiating their own stadium deal and site with the county, could not be reached for comment.
Council members Phil Heimlich, Dwight Tillery, Charles Winburn, Jeanette Cissell and Minette Cooper gave details about the tax hike at a news conference Sunday.
Mr. Heimlich said a state law would have to be passed to allow the city to give the school board such tax money for schools.
Richard Gardner, the city school board's treasurer, said it should be fairly easy for the state to change the law.
But Sen. Richard Finan, president of the Ohio Senate, said Sunday nobody has talked with him about changing the law.
''The understanding we had was that the county and the city would give the school board $5 million dollars apiece over 10 years from stadium tax money,'' said Mr. Finan, R-Evendale. ''We were asked to pass a law increasing the school board's bonding authority. But no one said anything to us about an admissions tax.''
Previous stories
Bengals want county blitz on seat licenses March 21,1997