Bucs will pay reduced tax bill

The team sued over a $71,000 tax bill from the old Houlihan's Stadium. Property officials agree to reduce it to $54,000.

By LARRY DOUGHERTY

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 9, 2000

TAMPA -- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have agreed to settle a lawsuit they filed last year against Hillsborough Property Appraiser Rob Turner over disputed tax bills from the old Houlihan's Stadium, officials said Thursday.

The team has agreed to pay about $54,000 in taxes to conclude its lawsuit. The case was scheduled to go to trial next week.

The amount the team will pay represents tax the property appraiser said was due on skyboxes at the old stadium, and a tax on the Bucs' last year of occupancy there.

The lawsuit is not related to the question of whether Raymond James Stadium is taxable property. The Florida Supreme Court is considering that question.

Chief Deputy Property Appraiser Warren Weathers called the settlement "a victory for average taxpayers, to see big corporations pay a little now."

An attorney for the Bucs could not be reached late Thursday.

Weathers and the general counsel for the appraiser's office, Will Shepherd, said the team sued last year, protesting a tax bill of roughly $71,000.

The bill fell into two parts. One was a $55,000 tab for the skyboxes at Houlihan's. Another $16,000 was assessed against the Bucs as an intangible tax, after the Tampa Sports Authority agreed to waive the team's last year of paying $600,000 rent in Houlihan's. An obscure state law mandated such a tax if a local government waived a rent payment, Shepherd said.

Property officials agreed to reduce the total bill to $54,000 after acknowledging they had failed to properly depreciate the aging skyboxes. They called that figure their final offer. Early this week, the Bucs accepted it. Hillsborough Circuit Judge James Arnold approved the settlement Thursday.

Larry Dougherty can be reached at (813) 226-3337 or dougherty@sptimes.com.

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