The man who tried hardest to defeat the successful 1996 half-cent stadium tax levy was angered to learn Monday that Hamilton County plans to pay a Bengals subsidiary to manage Paul Brown Stadium.

He was even more angry to learn county officials planned to pay that subsidiary, Paul Brown Stadium Ltd., using proceeds from the half-cent sales tax - instead of the stadium's revenues or other county funds.

"I do not recall them talking about using the tax money to operate stadiums," said Cincinnati attorney Tim Mara, who led the opposition to the tax, which is funding construction of the Bengals' and Reds' stadiums. "It's clear the county is using the stadium sales tax as a slush fund." Under terms of an interim contract the commissioners discussed Monday, the county, which owns the now-incomplete stadium, will pay about $31,000 for a building engineer and about $27,000 for a controller for the last six months of this year.

Over the course of a full year, taxpayers would pay more than $116,500 for the two positions - not including the costs of a head groundskeeper. The salary numbers will grow as additional staff is added when the stadium begins operation.

Mara argued that by adding operation expenses to construction costs, county officials are extending the length of time taxpayers will continue to pay the half-cent tax, which rose to 6 cents from 5.5 cents on the dollar after the March 1996 election.

Before the election, officials predicted the tax would end in about 20 years, when the new stadiums are paid off.

"At least until the bond issue is retired, the football-stadium operations will be funded through the stadium sales tax," said County Budget Director Suzanne Burke. She said when voters approved the half-cent sales tax, the money was to go for stadium purposes, "which lease operations are certainly a part of."

The ballot language for Issue 1 did not include the word "stadium."

Management of Cinergy Field, also owned by the county, is handled by an outside contractor, but under the terms of the county's stadium agreement with the team, the Paul Brown Stadium contract must go to the Bengals, said a team spokesman, Troy Blackburn.

"I think there are tremendous benefits to the taxpayer," Blackburn said. Among them, the team and the stadium manager will not be at odds over what constitutes compliance with the stadium's lease terms - like the disagreements that led to a 15-year lawsuit with the city over operations at Cinergy Field - he said. An independent manager could keep a better watch for taxpayers' interests, Mara counters - by asking such questions as: "Is the tenant abusing the building, for example?"

Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus said officials had planned all along to use the sales tax money for operations and maintenance: "All our financial analysis has included this all along."

Bedinghaus said he agreed with both Blackburn and Mara on the pros and cons of having a company related to the Bengals handling stadium maintenance.

The Bengals "can't point at the (stadium) management company and say if they hadn't (goofed up), we could have done this or we could have done that," he said.

But, he says, if the county finds the relationship isn't working, it can turn the contract "over to a third party."

Copyright 1999 The Cincinnati Post