The D.C. Council has scheduled two public hearings on plans to provide some private funding for a baseball stadium, shifting control of the search to reduce public investment in the project from the mayor's office to the council.
Although Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) has delayed sending a specific private financing plan for a month, the council's Committee on Finance and Revenue has set Friday and May 16 as the days for the hearings, with eight companies that have submitted private proposals and government officials invited the first day, followed by the general public.
At the council's request, Natwar M. Gandhi, the chief financial officer, reviewed all eight proposals and certified only two. Last month, he recommended one from Deutsche Bank.
The hearings will move the debate from the administration to the council.
Last fall, the council was sharply divided over the financing before narrowly approving a bill that authorized the $535 million stadium project with the provision that the mayor find $140 million in private money.
Committee Chairman Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) said he will hold a markup of the legislation on June 1, during which committee members can offer amendments. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) then could schedule a vote on the bill before the council's recess July 15.
"We'll hold hearings, and the council will decide what to do next," Evans said.
Cropp, who led the push for private financing, did not return a call seeking comment yesterday. She has been focusing on the fiscal 2006 operating budget, a spokesman said.
Williams sent the council legislation Monday that would authorize him to enact private financing for a stadium on the Anacostia waterfront for the Washington Nationals, but his bill lacked specifics about where the private dollars would come from. The mayor will forward a plan from Deutsche Bank to the council on Monday, aides said yesterday.
Under the Deutsche Bank proposal, the city would use $313 million in publicly financed bonds and take a $246 million payment from the international banking giant. In return, Deutsche Bank would receive revenue streams from taxes on concessions at the stadium.
Gandhi recommended last month that the city use the bank's plan as a way to limit the city's debt and reduce a gross receipt tax on large businesses.
But Williams's aides have continued to argue that public financing would save money in the long run, in part because the city can get better interest rates on bonds. Gandhi's staff reviewed a new public funding proposal from the mayor's office this week but declined to endorse it.
In addition to the Deutsche Bank plan certified by Gandhi, mayoral aides said, they might choose to submit a version that would include changes to the bank's proposed financing structure but still accept some money from the bank.
Aides for Evans, however, said the mayor's proposals will be merely a starting point for further debate from the council.
Council sources said six of the 13 members may vote against any financing plan that includes significant public dollars: David A. Catania (I-At Large), Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7).
Evans, Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5) and Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6) support public funding, while Cropp voted in favor of it in December only after the provision to seek private funding was added.
Aides to Evans believe Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) and Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), who voted against the public funding in December, would vote in favor of a partial private funding plan if Cropp supports it.
If the council fails to agree on a private funding plan, the legislation approved in December would remain in place, mayoral aides said. In that case, the stadium would be built through a combination of the gross receipts tax on businesses, a utility tax on city businesses and federal offices, an annual rent payment by the Nationals and a concessions tax.
