Truck and Barter

Baseball in DC

I'm so happy that the Expos are moving to DC, not because I am a rabid baseball fanatic, but because the Expos are NOT moving into Northern Virginia!

Virginia Governor Warner and state Republicans get my praise for not being as fast and loose with the public purse as DC government representatives:

Washington, selected this week over Northern Virginia as the new home of the Montreal Expos, "put a lot more public money at risk than we did," Warner said.... "I am not going to put a lot of taxpayer money at risk."

He disputed claims by Bill Collins, a top booster for Virginia baseball, that the state was turned down because the governor would not support bond financing of a stadium in Loudoun County.

Warner said he wasn't the only high-level foe of bonds; that they were "strongly opposed" by House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman John H. Chichester, R-Stafford.

Warner said public dollars would have covered about one-third of the cost of a Virginia stadium.

In separate comments at an economic development conference in Richmond, Warner said Washington's bid for the Expos included about $100 million more in public funds than the Northern Virginia offer.

"We pursued it very aggressively," Warner said. "But I take very seriously my job as steward of the taxpayers' money."

Government bonds would have been "pledging the state's balance sheet" to the sports venture, Warner said on the radio show....

Warner said there was "no appetite" to impose additional taxes on Virginians to support professional baseball.

DC agreed to pay all the costs of a brand new stadium. Suckers.

UPDATE: Max Sawicky is all over this one.

Posted at October 1, 2004 11:52 AM

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