Sen. Mike Bennett doesn't begrudge America's pastime so much as the people who play it.
The Bradenton Republican has made a regular habit of taking swipes at the salaries of professional baseball players every year when the Florida Marlins bill gets legs.
This year, the real people who play the game – lobbyists – are making headway, and Bennett has filed a bill to block the proposal to give the Marlins $60 million over 30 years for a retractable roof stadium.
His bill, along with a House companion bill carried by Democratic Rep. Scott Randolph of Orlando, would subject any proposal to give sports teams taxpayer dollars to a public vote.
If a city wanted to subsidize its team, the city's voters would have to approve it.
In the case of the Marlins, who seek a state sales tax rebate, voters statewide would have to sanction the giveaway.
"If you go ask some person in the Panhandle if they want to pay for a football stadium in Tampa or a baseball stadium in Miami, I don't think they're going to do it," Bennett said at a Tuesday press conference outside the Capitol.
But Bennett conceded his bill had about the same chance of passage as a Devil Rays series in October. The chairman of the committee his bill would have to clear is the sponsor of a Marlins bill.