[Excerpts]
During Bexar County’s last venue tax election, voters in 2008 OK’d devoting $415 million to updating the River Walk, building youth sports facilities and the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, and renovating the Frost Bank Center and Freeman Coliseum.
Now, with another election in November, COPS/Metro Alliance said the county should have asked voters to approve tax dollars for similar projects — not to help pay for a new $1.3 billion arena for the Spurs.
"Our scarce public funds are not play toys. They’re for public projects, for the common good, not public funds for private investments,”
COPS/Metro leader Ken Amerson said at a press conference Thursday.
The interfaith grassroots advocacy group [points out that] Proposition B...would provide up to $311 million for an arena at the former Institute of Texan Cultures site at Hemisfair. The county should prioritize projects such as parks and trails in every Bexar County precinct, flood control projects and cultural facilities, COPS/Metro leaders say.
The group is the loudest and most organized opposition to the arena proposal.
“If a fourth sports arena is needed, then let the investors build it [with their $140 billion net worth],”
Amerson said.
COPS/Metro Urges Voters to Reject Spurs Arena Deal, San Antonio Express-News [pdf]
WATCH: COPS/Metro Hosts Press Conference in Opposition to Proposition B on November Ballot, KSAT12 [video]
COPS/Metro: Spurs Arena not the Only Option for County Venue Tax, KSAT [pdf]
On Props. A and B, Voters will Decide Future of Controversial ‘Venue Tax’, San Antonio Report [pdf]
Proyecto Marvel no Logra Consensos en la Comunidad: Esto es lo que Argumentan, Telemundo60 [video]
How the Spurs and Arena Opponents are Making their Pitches to Voters, San Antonio Express-News [pdf]