"We didn’t investigate Jeff Bezos when we did a deal with Amazon,” said one Virginia senator. "We didn’t investigate anybody. This is a business transaction.”

Virginia lawmakers reject efforts to tie football stadium deal to Commanders probe - Virginia...
Virginia lawmakers writing legislation that could help bring a Washington Commanders football stadium to Northern Virginia have resisted multiple attempts to try to tie the deal to investigations...

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2022

Virginia lawmakers reject efforts to tie football stadium deal to Commanders probe

BY: GRAHAM MOOMAW - FEBRUARY 14, 2022 6:06 PM

Virginia lawmakers writing legislation that could help bring a Washington Commanders football stadium to Northern Virginia have resisted multiple attempts to tie the deal to investigations into the conduct of team owner Dan Snyder. ... A congressional committee has urged the National Football League to do more to hold the franchise accountable after several women complained of a toxic workplace culture, including Capitol Hill testimony from a former team employee who says Snyder sexually harassed her at a work dinner. Snyder has denied the accusation, but the NFL has said it will launch a new, independent investigation after failing to fully disclose the results of an earlier probe conducted by lawyer Beth Wilkinson.

The new developments have fueled speculation about whether Snyder could be forced to sell the team, a possibility Del. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax, raised on the floor of the House of Delegates Monday as he spoke against a bill to create a new state authority to help finance a stadium’s construction. The bill passed the House in a 62-37 vote Monday, and a different version appears likely to pass the state Senate later this week.

On Friday, Simon tried to insert language saying the bill wouldn’t take effect until the NFL releases the results of Wilkinson’s earlier investigation and produces 2,100 documents requested by the U.S. House’s Committee on Oversight and Reform. ... “We need to know what went on, what kind of sexual misconduct took place at Redskins park in Ashburn, Virginia. We need to know what happened to these women,” Simon said. “… All this amendment does is say that authority can’t go forward until we get the transparency and the insight into who it is we’re going into business with.”

Simon’s amendment failed on a 46-51 vote, with almost all Democrats joining him and nearly every Republican opposing it.

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Over a 30-year lease, he said, the planned development would generate an estimated $153 million per year in tax revenues. Of that, {Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, a chief sponsor of the Senate’s stadium bill,} said, $60 million would go to the state, $59 million would go to the local government and $34 million would go to the authority to help pay off the bond financing. ... There would be no tax hikes to pay for a stadium, he said, and taxpayers wouldn’t be on the hook to pay off the bonds if the deal doesn’t go as planned. ... “The state is not backing the bonds,” Saslaw said. “It’s forbidden in the bill.”
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GRAHAM MOOMAW
A veteran Virginia politics reporter, Graham grew up in Hillsville and Lynchburg, graduating from James Madison University and earning a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. Before joining the Mercury in 2019, he spent six years at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, most of that time covering the governor's office, the General Assembly and state politics. He also covered city hall and politics at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville. Contact him at gmoomaw@virginiamercury.com