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State Legislature Shutouts the Marlins

The stadium funding bill failed to pass in both houses of the legislature on the final day of this year's legislative session.

Dan brought this to light in the comments last night.

Once again the Marlins were shutout.

A bill to provide a $60 million subsidy to help the Florida Marlins build a new ballpark in Hialeah died in the Florida House when the clock struck midnight, ending the session.

The measure had passed 20-16 vote in the Senate only moments earlier.

"It's midnight," House Speaker Allan Bense said. "We're done."

The Marlins have tried five times in the last six years to win legislative approval to help fund a new stadium.

One possible, but doubtful, positive did happen in the language of the spring training venues funding that passed last night.

It includes language that would allow a county or city to vote to use its local half-cent sales tax to help a baseball team, such as the Florida Marlins, build a stadium. However, there's no guarantee the shift of sales tax would be made.

I won't hold my breath.

I'm not going to go into a long diatribe about how the Marlins aren't receiving funding while the state funds every other professional sports franchise and Wayne Huizenga.

I never expected the organization to get any help from the state anyway.

The state's basic refusal to chip in does not kill the Hialeah stadium deal.  It just means that it will be totally funded by the Marlins, the county and the city of Hialeah should it happen.

The county commissioners have always been the most important players in the Hialeah deal.  The state has never been willing to help and probably never will be.