BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana House approved a central piece of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s deal to keep the New Orleans Saints in the state: a bill that would allow the state to lease office space from team owner Tom Benson.
The measure to sidestep the traditional leasing process for state agencies was sent to the Senate with a 70-23 vote Wednesday.
Benson plans to buy and redevelop a vacant office complex and a vacant former mall next to the Louisiana Superdome. Under the Jindal administration deal, the state agreed to rent office space from the Saints owner in a deal to funnel money to the NFL team while limiting direct cash subsidies, which have reached $23.5 million a year.
In exchange, Benson agreed to keep the Saints in New Orleans through 2025.
“This is a creative way of shifting risk to the owner and off of the state,” said House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown, speaking in support of the bill and the overall deal with the team.
Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, argued against the measure, calling it an inappropriate move to give more money to the Saints when the state was weighing cuts to health care and education programs.
“The greed of the one takes precedence over the needs of the many,” Jones said.
Under the new deal with the Saints, the state will pay annual rent of about $8 million, increasing incrementally over time, for a 15-year-lease with a five-year renewal option to occupy about 60 percent of the office building, abandoned since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005 and once known as the Dominion Tower.
The move will consolidate state offices in New Orleans, which have been spread across several leased spaces around the city after Katrina damaged a state-owned building downtown.
Meanwhile, the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, the entity that oversees the state-owned Superdome, will work with Benson to turn the former mall into a sports-themed plaza. The bill would allow the LSED to lease space from Benson as part of that redevelopment deal.
The lease arrangements with Benson were added into a bill by Rep. Charles “Bubba” Chaney, D-Rayville.
The House already had overwhelmingly approved another piece of the Saints deal: $85 million in surplus spending on improvements to the Superdome. The money would be used to add suites, widen the concourses and make other improvements to generate additional money for the team. That awaits debate in the Senate.—-Contact The Daily Reveille sports staff at [email protected]