Christine Jordan Sexton
Legislative leadership on Friday asked the state’s chief economist to analyze and rank four applicants seeking sports incentives from the state.
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli said in a statement that the Florida Legislature expected the Department of Economic Opportunity to review and rank the four applicants who are vying for $7 million in competitive grants.
“For whatever reason DEO believes they are not under an obligation to provide that information to us,” Crisafulli said in a statement. “It would be a great disservice to ask members to vote on these projects without an objective ranking.”
The state set aside $7 million for the sports incentives to be approved by the Legislative Budget Commission. Four applicants–the City of Orlando, the City of Jacksonville, Daytona International Speedway and South Florida Stadium, LLC– submitted $9 million in requests.
The Department of Economic Opportunity last week forwarded all four applications to the Legislature but did not rank them. The agency said the department did not have to rank the applications because they were all related to projects that commenced between March 2013 and July 1, 2014 and therefore were exempt from the ranking process.
Crisafulli and Gardiner have asked Chief Economist Amy Baker to rank and review the applications. “We believe we will be able to get the results before (s)ession.”
