Buckhorns Chooses Sides Against Oak Grove Community

May 3, 2018 by AFP

Tampa Mayor asks Governor and Feds to pull resources from Oak Grove favoring funding for privately owned baseball team

Tallahassee, FL – Americans for Prosperity-Florida (AFP-FL) is appalled by Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s request to have Governor Scott intervene with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s office to pull potentially available resources from the Oak Grove neighborhood in order to hand that opportunity to developers seeking to build a baseball stadium for a privately owned baseball team.

AFP-FL believes that government should not pick winners and losers, and that subsidizing professional sports teams on the backs of hard working taxpayers amounts to corporate welfare. In the case of Tampa Mayor Buckhorn, he is picking winners and losers by calling on the federal government to allow him to dole out taxpayer resources through controversial economic opportunity zones for one community over the needs of Oak Grove.

“Mayor Buckhorn’s call to pull potential resources from the Oak Grove community for another destination is a clear case of picking winners and losers,’” said AFP-FL state director, Chris Hudson. “The move by the Mayor to throw Oak Grove under the bus like this shows he’ll stop at nothing to ensure taxpayers are on the hook to build a privately-owned baseball stadium. We call on Governor Scott and local officials to oppose allowing taxpayer dollars to be used to build a private owned baseball stadium.”