Six state legislators sued the governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon, as well as the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority over Nixon’s plan to fund a new stadium in St. Louis.
The lawsuit alleges that taxpayer’s money is “being spent illegally” on “an illegal construction of a new NFL stadium.”
Nixon and other government officials proposed that the state extend bonds on the current stadium, Edward Jones Dome, on both the city and state level, which would bypass a public vote and would give about $250 million in public funds for a new stadium that is expected to cost about $985 million.
The extension of the bonds is key to funding the stadium and could help persuade the NFL that the Rams should stay in St. Louis instead of moving to Los Angeles, which is currently being considered as an option for the team. However, the lawsuit asserts that the extension of bonds is illegal and that laws written twenty years ago about the bonds don’t allow officials to “extend” them.
Additionally, the suit says that laws surrounding the stadium don’t allow a new stadium to be built on a different site because it needs to be “adjacent to” the convention center that is currently next to Edward Jones Dome.
Lawmakers are pushing for the public to have a vote about tax money and funding the new stadium.
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