Quentin Stanerson
Governor Terry Branstad must now decide whether a baseball facility in eastern Iowa should get a financial boost from the state.
The Iowa House has given final approval to a bill that sets up a state sales tax rebate of up to $2.5 million for the proposed “Prospect Meadows” near Marion.
Representative Quentin Stanerson, a Republican from Center Point, says a Major League scouting company is the driving force behind the project.
“I don’t think folks realize that we have one of the largest player development organizations right here in Iowa. Perfect Game which has the largest scouting department in all of baseball and has the largest database of its kind anywhere in baseball is located right in Linn County. At any given time there will be nearly 100,000 high school players being followed via the database that Perfect Game provides,” Stanerson says.
“Thirty-seven of 42 first-round draft picks in Major League Baseball in 2014 previously attended Perfect Game events.”
Perfect Game officials say they would host tournaments at a multi-field complex in Linn County to showcase the nation’s top baseball recruits. Four years ago lawmakers approved a $16.5 million sales tax rebate for the company planning a “Field of Dreams” complex near Dyersville, but the project hasn’t gotten off the ground.
The bill approved by the House last night and the Senate earlier this month would cut the tax break offer for the Dyersville project down to $2.5 million.