DeSantis used its veto powers Thursday to remove $ 35 million for a sports training and youth tournament complex in Pasco County, Tampa Bay, which local officials hoped could serve as a new facility. Player development for the Rays. On Friday, he said he withdrew funding because “I can’t stand giving money to taxpayers at professional sports stadiums.”
But a source said the Republican leader had not made up his mind until the Rays took an organizational stance by calling for action following the latest mass shootings.
Two days after a gunman killed 19 children and two adults at a Texas elementary school, the Rays announced a $ 50,000 donation to Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization that advocates policies to prevent armed violence. The Major League Baseball team also tweeted a statement calling for action.
“That can’t be normal,” the tweet said. “We can’t fall asleep. We can’t look the other way. We all know that if nothing changes, nothing changes.”
It would not be the first time DeSantis has moved against a company that took a political stance against him. DeSantis signed a bill in April to strip Disney of its special government status in Florida after the company publicly criticized a new state law banning certain classroom instructions on sexual orientation and identity. genre.
DeSantis hinted at his discomfort with the Rays’ statements on Friday, telling reporters at a news conference that it was “inappropriate to subsidize the political activism of a private corporation.” But he added: “In any case, it is not appropriate, but we were not in a situation where the use of tax money for a professional stage would have been a prudent use.”
A spokeswoman for the Rays did not respond to a request for comment.
Pasco County had successfully lobbied state lawmakers to include $ 35 million in the budget for a sports complex in Odessa that would provide “community facilities that serve general recreation, youth / amateur / professional baseball and softball participation.” Sports tourism and other programs and events “. according to the budget request. The Rays were expected to relocate their training operations to the resort.
DeSantis is skeptical of the proposal, the source said. The governor thought it might upset residents in Port Charlotte, home of the current Rays spring training facility, if he helped the team move to another part of Florida, and he didn’t think it would bring much economic benefits change the system. Rays training operation from one part of the state to another.
The new complex also required Rays and local governments to provide $ 35 million each, with which they had not yet officially committed, another point of contention for the governor.
But DeSantis, who grew up as a small league star in Dunedin, not far from where the Rays finally opened their St. Petersburg stadium, did not completely oppose the project until the Rays made the donation. in Everytown and commented on the tragedies. on Twitter. That made it easier politically, the source said.
In the past, DeSantis has opposed stricter gun laws. As a candidate for governor in 2018, he spoke out against the gun control measures of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, signed by then-governor. Rick Scott, a Republican, after the mass shooting of the school in Parkland, Florida. DeSantis recently promised to support legislation that would allow people to carry weapons in public without permission.
Kathryn Starkey, chair of the Pasco County Board of Commissioners, said she was unaware that DeSantis ‘veto could have been linked to the Rays’ recent advocacy against armed violence and did not comment. But she said she was “disappointed” that the money was not for a new training center.
“Everyone I spoke to in the community was excited about the possibility of the player development complex coming up, but we’ll keep talking to the Rays and try to come to an agreement,” Starkey said. “That makes it harder.”