Hillsborough County voters renewed a half-cent sales tax in 2024 on one promise.
That money would never fund a sports stadium.
Commissioners are about to break that promise for a multi-billion-dollar ballpark.
DeSantis Lights a Fire Under a Deal Already Stalling
Governor Ron DeSantis signed Florida's $117.6 billion budget Monday at Hillsborough College's Dale Mabry campus, with $50 million attached for the school – money that only pays off if the Tampa Bay Rays actually build their stadium right there.
DeSantis made clear he's done waiting on local leaders to get a financing deal across the finish line.
"I know that there's people in Orlando that want it," he said, naming North Carolina and Tennessee as other suitors lining up for Florida's baseball team.
He's said it before.
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In February, standing next to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, DeSantis called Orlando "an extremely viable option."
This time, the deadline isn't theoretical.
The Rays' lease at Tropicana Field runs out after 2028, and Hillsborough commissioners have already blown through two of their own deadlines trying to finalize the money.
The Tax They Said Would Never Be Touched
The $976 million public financing piece commissioners still haven't locked down leans heavily on Hillsborough's Community Investment Tax – a half-cent sales surtax voters extended in 2024 specifically for roads, schools, public safety and public utilities.
Not stadiums.
County Chair Ken Hagan has admitted it outright.
"This agreement does not happen without the CIT," he told fellow commissioners. "It just doesn't."
Republican Commissioner Josh Wostal said the quiet part out loud to his own colleagues: using CIT money now means "we already deceive the taxpayers that we made a promise to no less than two years ago."
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Conservative Hillsborough commentator Christine Jaroch made the same case from outside the building, arguing residents approved the tax renewal on a guarantee that didn't survive contact with a baseball deal.
Taxpayers Are Catching On – and Fighting Back
Mailers are already landing in mailboxes across Hillsborough County, calling out commissioners by name over the CIT switch.
One hit Commissioner Harry Cohen over what it called a "$1 billion stadium-giveaway."
A separate mailer targeting Commissioner Chris Boles urged residents to call him directly and demand answers for his "broken promises."
Commissioner Christine Miller got her own mailer accusing her of campaigning as a fiscal conservative, then flipping.
Longtime Hillsborough Republican activist Sam Rashid is behind the pressure campaign, and he isn't pulling punches.
"There are rotting carcasses of previous county commissioners buried all around" Miller's district, he wrote, for officials who "tried to pull the same bs on taxpayers in the past."
Tampa's own Community Redevelopment Agency got the message.
Three weeks ago, facing the same unresolved funding questions, the board punted a key vote on the deal until August rather than rubber-stamp it.
Hillsborough College President Ken Atwater wants this resolved fast.
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His 56-year-old campus sits on 130 acres generating almost nothing for the county right now, and the Rays deal is his shot at a full state-funded rebuild.
What Happens If Commissioners Cave to the Pressure Campaign
DeSantis has MLB's commissioner.
He has the Rays.
He has $50 million in the state budget pointed straight at this property.
What he doesn't have is a guarantee that Hillsborough commissioners will keep their word to the people who elected them.
Commissioners up for reelection in November are staring at a choice: hand a half-billion-dollar piece of a stadium deal to a tax fund voters were told would never touch it, or admit the promise can't be kept and find the money somewhere else.
Either way, the people footing the bill deserve a straight answer before a single dollar moves – not a financing trick buried in a memo years after they were told it wouldn't happen this way.
Sources:
- Steve Newborn, "DeSantis restates support for Rays stadium with $50 million budgeted for Hillsborough College," WUSF, June 30, 2026.
- Amanda Finn, "Governor DeSantis Threatens Tampa Bay Rays Could Move MLB Team to Orlando," June 30, 2026.
- "Baseball stadium proposal roils Tampa's political scene," WUSF, April 26, 2026.
- "Have you gotten a scary mailer warning against a Rays stadium deal? Beware, it's from a dead guy," Florida Politics, May 7, 2026.
- "Rays stadium vote delayed until August after lengthy funding debate," WFLA.
- "Tampa Bay Rays trim their stadium ask, but a $75M gap remains unresolved," WUSF, April 16, 2026.
- "Hillsborough County commissioners advance Tampa Rays stadium discussions despite funding concerns," Tampa Bay 28, February 4, 2026.
