Title
To enact the ordinance proposed by Initiative Petition entitled "Arena Bailouts Demand a Vote" to amend Section 2 of Ordinance #1596-2011, passed October 5, 2011, to prohibit appropriations for the purpose of financing Nationwide Arena effective January 1, 2016, absent a prior electoral vote in favor of such appropriations, and to repeal the existing Section 2 being amended.
Body
WHEREAS, the electors of the City of Columbus and Franklin County have on five occasions rejected public funding for a sports arena in Columbus; and
WHEREAS, upon rejection of the most recent ballot effort to provide public funding for a downtown arena in 1998, Nationwide Insurance Company, the Columbus Dispatch, and other private sector partners collaborated to build a privately-financed and privately-operated arena; and
WHEREAS, the citizens of Columbus received assurances from the private parties and governmental officials that there were no expectations of any contribution of public funding for the operation of such an arena; and
WHEREAS, said Nationwide Arena was built and successfully operated from 2002 through 2011 with no contribution of public funding for operations; and
WHEREAS, in the absence of such public funding there are now over 1.2 million square feet of office space comprising 80 percent of the leased space in the Arena District, which contributes greatly to the Arena District's success and that those businesses' success is not driven by the activities of the Nationwide Arena or Columbus Blue Jackets; and
WHEREAS, there are more than 1,000 residents who lived in a thriving Arena District prior to any public funding of the Nationwide Arena and whose presence does not depend solely on the operations of the Nationwide Arena or Columbus Blue Jackets; and
WHEREAS, Stephen Buser, Ph.D. completed a study that stated that the Arena District and Nationwide Arena generate $20.4 million annually in state and local income tax revenue, but that there is no infor...
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