BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Even with the favorable interest rates Hamilton County has gotten for the bonds issued to build the Bengals' new Paul Brown Stadium, interest payments will total more than $353 million over the 30-year debt, according to county documents.
For the $273 million in bonds county officials sold Tuesday, interest payments will top $283 million -- more than the amount of the bond issue itself. An initial $71.6 million bond issue in January will carry more than $70 million in interest payments.
That brings the total cost of the project -- with the stadium complex itself plus financing costs -- to more than $753 million.
County officials plan to pay off the stadium debt early, but the county's ability to do that depends on how much money the county sales tax generates. As with any loan, the sooner the debt is paid off, the less will be paid in interest.
During the 1996 campaign to increase the county sales tax by a half-cent to fund stadium construction, officials estimated they would pay off the debt in 20 years.
But opponents of the tax increase argue voters didn't realize how much financing costs would add to the stadium project.
"Clearly this pair of stadiums, once it's all done, will top $1 billion including financing," said Tim Mara, a lawyer who led the fight against the tax increase in 1996. "It's just a big sinkhole. We just keep throwing money into it."
Bob Bedinghaus, the Hamilton County commissioner most identified with the stadiums, said the financing costs shouldn't surprise anyone because the county always has assumed it would have to borrow money to build the stadiums.
He stressed that the cost of the $400.3 million football complex hasn't changed. The county hasn't yet made a deal with the Reds. Mr. Bedinghaus said he thinks it "misrepresents" what the county is doing to discuss the interest costs on the project.
"If the debt is outstanding for 30 years, some of our models show an unspent sales tax fund of $1 billion," he said.
It all depends on whether the county pays the minimum annual debt service or more, he said, stressing that county officials plan to pay off the debt early.
The county issued far more debt than the $322.7 million officials originally planned to issue last October. In large part, that's because land for the project has cost about $18 million more than the county originally budgeted.
