Ideas for $60.3 million windfall abound

Three members of the Richmond City Council credited Mayor Dwight C. Jones for negotiating a $60.3 million windfall for the city but made it clear that the council would have to sign off on any use of the money.

"The mayor deserves a lot of credit and congratulations for pulling this coup," Councilman E. Martin Jewell said Thursday. "But we are the governing body ... and it seems to me that we should have some ideas as well as the mayor for how those dollars should be spent."

Or used for tax relief.

Appearing at a news conference with Jewell and Councilman Bruce W. Tyler, Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell said residents want relief from the city's high taxes, and she suggested that the $60.3 million could be used to at least reduce the real estate, meals or admissions taxes.

If the 6 percent meals tax were scrapped, the $60.3 million would replace the lost revenue for more than two years before the city would face a net loss of revenue. The meals tax generates about $24.3 million annually, according to the city.

Tyler said a couple of cents could be permanently trimmed from the $1.20 real estate tax rate if a significant portion of the $60.3 million were used to boost the city's retirement system, which is currently funded at about 58 percent. He faulted ideas floated by the mayor for use of the funds and said the city needs to focus on the retirement system and school infrastructure.

With one-time money, "you have to be very careful that you don't spend it on feel-good projects, and that's what this conversation's about — feel-good projects or something that will have a long-term, significant impact on our community," Tyler said.

The city has been as giddy as a lottery winner since Tuesday when the Richmond Metropolitan Authority tentatively agreed to settle a decades-old city debt that helped establish the expressway system. Officials said a larger refinancing of RMA debt will allow the lump-sum payment of $60.3 million to be made without any increase in tolls.

Jones has sketched out a general vision for using the money but said a proposal would be developed over the coming months with council members. His ideas include bolstering reserves and paying off debt to improve the city's financial standing; pursuing key projects, such as a new baseball stadium and an expansion of public space on the riverfront; and beginning to address chronic issues associated with concentrations of poverty. He said the city's clusters of low-income housing stem in part to the expressway system and other highway projects that were routed through poor neighborhoods.

"I think he laid out his plan fairly clearly," Tammy D. Hawley, the mayor's press secretary, said after the council members' news conference. "He started out this process (saying) there would be dialogue."

And that dialogue isn't limited to city officials.

The Greater Richmond Chamber has asked its members to provide feedback on the mayor's ideas and to offer any additional ideas for consideration. With about 30 responses so far, chamber members appear supportive of the mayor's ideas, said John Easter, senior vice president for government and community affairs.

Charlie Diradour, a developer who has encouraged the city to pursue a new baseball stadium along North Boulevard, said the RMA payment presents an opportunity to push that project forward and to create much-needed development along the corridor.

He suggested a $45 million stadium could be built with $9 million apiece from the Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball team, Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield and Henrico, as well as with $4.5 million each from Hanover and Goochland counties.

Any effort toward a new stadium is expected to involve RMA, which owns The Diamond baseball facility, and it could revive a push in the General Assembly to balance representation among the authority's member localities. The city debt has long been a sticking point in efforts to reallocate seats on the 11-member RMA board, which currently consists of six members from Richmond, two apiece from Chesterfield and Henrico, and one from the state transportation board.

At Thursday's news conference, Jewell said payment of the $60.3 million debt would have no effect on the allotment of board seats.

"We need to take into account that Richmond contributed greatly to the RMA and to that Downtown Expressway. That expressway exists on 100 percent of Richmond city land," Jewell said. "Nothing's changed to change the composition of the board, and so to talk in that direction seems a bit wasteful and sort of ludicrous."