Home     News     Obituaries     Sports     Dallas Cowboys     Features     Entertainment     Opinion     Classifieds

SPORTS Local Baseball Basketball Dallas Cowboys Football Golf Motor Sports Outdoors Recreation Soccer Tennis Tiger Woods Track and Field Other Sports

PRINT THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE Wednesday, July 29, 1998 Group seeks baseball funding election ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) - A group of Round Rock residents wants to give voters a chance to decide on city funding for a minor league baseball stadium. Round Rock officials are considering a petition filed by five residents of the Austin suburb that would bar the city from spending any taxpayer money on a facility for professional sports. The five petition filers gathered 471 signatures to get the petition before the city council. At least 318 must be validated before the council can vote. By ordinance, if the city council rejects the ban - as expected - it will go to voters in a November referendum. The facility would house a double-A team affiliated with the Houston Astros and owned in part by Nolan Ryan. The pitching legend; his son, Reid Ryan; and business partner Don Sanders of Houston bought the Jackson (Mississippi) Generals in April. They plan to bring the team to Round Rock for the 2000 season. The city is planning to use hotel-motel tax revenue to pay its share of the $13 million project - about $6.8 million. But the group of residents - Bill and Pamela Albee, Tish and David Oatman, and Marsha Bradish - wants the town to have a say in how that money is spent. "The petition was initiated so the people could have the right to vote," said Tish Oatman, who sat on the city council from 1989 to 1992. "This is a big decision for our town, and it's only right that the people of Round Rock have a part in making it." Team and city officials said they are confident the council and then the town will vote down the proposed ban on public spending on the stadium. "I think we'll have an election in November, and I think we'll have baseball in April of 2000," said Round Rock Mayor Charlie Culpepper. "I'm surprised that in a month all they could get was 471 signatures. That's less than 2 percent of the registered voters in Round Rock." Culpepper has repeatedly said that only the hotel-motel tax revenue would be used to pay for the city's share of the stadium. He has promised that no property tax, sales tax, or general fund money would be used. Under state law, the hotel-motel tax revenue can be used only for tourism-related ventures. Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story Send the URL (Address) of This Story to A Friend: Enter their email address below: texnews.com Reporter OnLine Local Sports Texas Sports Copyright ©1998, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications Send the URL (Address) of This Story to A Friend: Enter their email address below:

Search current site:        Search archives for:

© 1995- The E.W. Scripps Co. and the Abilene Reporter-News. All Rights Reserved. Site users are subject to our User Agreement. We also have a Privacy Policy.