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Ridge sees little stadium support Some House Republicans do back school vouchers Sunday, January 17, 1999 By Frank Reeves and Peter J. Shelly, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Correspondents
HARRISBURG - Gov. Ridge made yet another pitch last week for building professional sports stadiums to what has proven to be one of his toughest audiences - members of the House Republican caucus.
Ridge was received cordially when he met with about 70 GOP caucus members during a retreat Monday night in the Pocono Mountains.
Surrounded by members of his own party, the governor promoted two of his major legislative priorities - stadiums and school tuition vouchers. But he apparently failed to persuade many lawmakers to support his plan to use state money to help pay for four sports stadiums, two each in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
"I though it went very well," Ridge said later last week. "I think we really were talking about an agenda for the next two years - the politics of the next two years and the legislative agenda for the next two years, which obviously includes stadiums."
Ridge thanked his fellow Republicans for their cooperation during the last session and congratulated them for a string of legislative victories over the past two years.
Lawmakers who attended the retreat said the governor was, indeed, well-received, and some lawmakers even applauded when he mentioned the vouchers. But no one clapped during his pitch for the stadiums.
"It died, just died," one lawmaker recalled. "The governor thanked us and congratulated us for all our work in the last session ... but he talked up stadiums, and it just isn't happening."
Ridge's push to raise the state's debt ceiling so he can pump as much as $325 million into the four stadium projects appears to have provoked little enthusiasm among the House members. Shortly before Thanksgiving, in the waning hours of the 1997-98 session, the stadium-funding bill passed the Senate but failed to come to a vote in the House.
The Pittsburgh sports franchises are facing yet another make-or-break deadline to meet their projected construction schedules. They also are trying to overcome lingering ill will because of ugly turns in the debt-ceiling lobbying that included passage of a so-called "stealth" measure some legislators saw as a back-door bid to provide stadium money.
The teams are banking not only on Ridge but also on a team of high-powered lobbyists as well as supportive lawmakers to help pass by mid-February a slightly revised version of the debt-ceiling legislation that the Senate accepted last session.
Ridge needs all this assistance. Many GOP lawmakers say there is little support among constituents for spending state money to build stadiums. Indeed, as one lawmaker put it, opposition cuts across all socioeconomic lines. Some GOP lawmakers are worried that a vote for public financing for "rich team owners and millionaire athletes" could hurt vulnerable Republicans in the 2000 elections.
Since November, members have been buried by letters and phone calls from constituents who aren't buying the contention of proponents that the stadium projects will create more jobs. In fact, stadium-funding backers may actually have lost ground since November, several Ridge staffers concede, although they remain confident that the bill will soon be approved in any case.
Ridge wants a vote by Feb. 10, when the Legislature breaks for its usual series of budget hearings. Unless a bill is passed by then, it could be March or April before lawmakers consider the issue again - too late for the Pirates and the city of Pittsburgh, which says it needs state money to begin acquiring land and clearing the new Pirates stadium site if the baseball team is to meet its April 2001 deadline to move in.
House GOP leaders are fully aware that their control of the House could be in danger in 2000. Republicans, despite having outspent Democratic rivals, lost one House seat in November. The GOP holds a 103-99 edge, with one vacancy, and that vacancy is likely to be filled by a Democrat. So the eventual House makeup this session is likely to be 103 Republicans and 100 Democrats.
Ridge conceded that voting for stadium financing was difficult for many lawmakers. But the governor, who handily won re-election last fall, said his own political fortunes hadn't suffered because of his public support for using state revenues to assist these projects.
"As I tried to remind folks, there has only been one public person visibly, vocally and positively supporting the state's giving one-third [of the projected construction costs] to the stadiums over the past two years. That's me," Ridge said. "I would hope they would take some comfort in the fact because, clearly, that has been known statewide for some time."
He said there had been no voter backlash against a particular party or governor who supported public financing for stadiums.
Ridge's stance favoring vouchers, on the other hand, seems to have struck a responsive chord with some lawmakers at the GOP caucus.
"School choice was well-received, at least at my table," recalled Rep. William Adolph, R-Delaware, a longtime voucher advocate. But the governor's call for state money for stadiums failed to change any minds.
"It's an area where residents from my [suburban Philadelphia] district believe that tax dollars should not be involved. Everybody loves the Phillies and the Pirates, but it is a private industry, and most taxpayers believe there is enough money in the industry between team owners, television [broadcast rights] and players to pay for stadiums," said Adolph, who said he owned season tickets for Eagles football seats.
Although he hasn't done a count, Adolph believes that House GOP support for the stadium bill has dwindled since November. He said he and other lawmakers had been flooded with constituent messages objecting to this use of state money. That has helped convince lawmakers - even some who might have supported the bill previously - that the public opposes it.
Monday night, Ridge sat at the table of newly elected Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, and had what the first-term lawmaker described as a cordial meeting, but the two agreed to disagree on stadium funding.
"Gov. Ridge is for the use of tax dollars to build stadiums. I am solidly against it," Metcalfe said. "I didn't change his mind; he didn't change mine."
Rep. John Pippy, R-Moon, said Ridge didn't gain or lose any votes because of his appearance at the GOP retreat, and that it was still too early to predict whether the House would pass the legislation.
Like many colleagues, Pippy knows that a lot of voters think first about "million-dollar ballplayers" rather than possible benefits of stadium financing. Pippy said he was more keenly interested in economic development initiatives that focus on Pittsburgh International Airport, which is in his district, than in the Pittsburgh or Philadelphia stadium projects.
At the same time, Pippy said, he realized that no major projects could advance without a higher state debt ceiling. And he said the Ridge administration would need to include in the stadium funding bill some provisions protecting the taxpayer investment if it was to muster enough votes for House passage.
In 1997, voters in 11 Western Pennsylvania counties, including Allegheny, overwhelmingly rejected a referendum to raise the sales tax locally to help pay for building stadiums in Pittsburgh for the Pirates and Steelers as well as other regional economic development. Metcalfe said some had chosen to interpret that referendum vote as merely expressing opposition to imposing taxes to pay for stadiums. But in his view, voters were sending a much stronger message - that they oppose any use of tax dollars for stadiums.
Professional baseball may be having problems paying ever-higher player salary demands, Metcalfe said, but that's a problem that must be solved by baseball's owners and players, not the taxpaying public. "If the market doesn't bear what salaries players receive and the price of tickets, [pro teams] shouldn't ask the taxpayers to subsidize these salaries by helping to pay for stadiums," he said.
Metcalfe said, however, that he welcomed Ridge's strong support for school tuition vouchers - an idea he heartily endorses as well - to give parents more choice in where to educate their children while increasing competition within public education.
The tuition voucher issue cuts across party lines. Among House Republicans, there are almost as many who oppose it as support it fervently. That divide also was reflected at the retreat. When Ridge mentioned vouchers, he was greeted by applause from some Republican lawmakers while others sat silent.
Some lawmakers, not wishing to embarrass a governor of their own party or risk provoking the ire of Ridge or his staff, spoke about the party caucus on condition of anonymity.
"Everybody was very polite and respectful. Nobody said anything out of line," one lawmaker said. "We respect the office, like the man, but don't like his idea" to use tax revenues for stadiums.
House Republican leaders don't want to jeopardize any GOP seats by leaning on members to support what is inarguably a controversial measure.
And some lawmakers can't understand why Ridge has hitched his political fortunes to an issue they see as very unpopular with the electorate.
"It is very sad," one said. "I know [Ridge and his advisers] will shoot themselves in the foot, but there is nothing you can do about it."
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