Letter to the Editor

Your View 3/28

Thursday, March 28, 2002

Just about a year ago, the St. Louis Cardinals came up with a good proposal for financing a new ballpark. That one didn't make it through the General Assembly. Politics, like baseball, is an unpredictable game. Now the Cardinals and their supporters are back with an even better proposal. From the taxpayer point of view, I'd go as far as to say that it is a great proposal.

No team in the history of Major League Baseball has ever come up with a proposal as protective of taxpayers or as generous to the host state as this one. The Cardinals are taking the big risks. They are putting up the money, asking the state only for a loan to cover a third of construction costs. Estimates are that Missouri would get back $4 in new tax revenue for every $1 it lends to the Cardinals. Even the mega-banks don't get that kind of return on loans. And the permanent source of new tax revenue comes on top of the $1 billion in economic activity and 7,000 new jobs the project would bring to Missouri.

If politics kill this proposal, I'm afraid there might not be the third pitch from the Cardinals. And that would be a big loss for Missouri.

Renee Campbell, Sikeston