Who's No. 1? State passes on ranking sports-related tax incentives

Four sports franchises vying for $7 million in tax incentives cleared an initial hurdle Friday afternoon as the state’s leading jobs office forwarded their applications for review by the Florida Legislature.

However, the applicants — the City of Orlando, the City of Jacksonville, Daytona International Speedway, and South Florida Stadium LLC — have not been notified by the state Department of Economic Opportunity how they fared against each other.

The Department of Economic Opportunity sent a letter to Senate President Any Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli on Friday advising them all four applications had met the statutory requirements for the incentive money.

DEO Press Secretary Jessica Sims said the department didn’t rank the applications because the applications were all related to projects commenced between March 1, 2013, and July 1, 2014, and therefore are exempt from the ranking process.

Kathy Russell, director of intergovernmental relations for the City of Orlando, said she was surprised at the letter she received from the state Department of Economic Opportunity at lunch time. The Orlando City Soccer Club, she said, is the only new franchise seeking grant money, which –according to the application — gave them 5 bonus points. It is requesting $2 million for the next 30 years. She noted that Section D of the application that the franchised filled out notes that the “DEO shall competitively evaluate and rank applicants …. “

“We would have preferred to be ranked,” she said.

The four groups submitted applications totaling a combined $9 million, $2 million more than what is available for the first round of grants.

Daytona International Speedway applied for $3 million, the Jacksonville Jaguars requested $1 million, and the Miami Dolphins applied for $3 million.

The DEO finished reviewing the applications and notified the Legislature one week before the February 1 deadline.

The final say on how the money is appropriated rests with the Joint Legislative Budget Commission. The commission would not have been required to adhere to the DEO’s ranking. Nevertheless, Russell said, “it would have helped.”