Incumbent Mayor Ken Welch and challenger Charlie Crist — Florida's former governor and attorney general and education commissioner — sparred during a debate Tuesday night carried by Spectrum Bay News 9.
In the August primary, Crist claimed 35% of the vote to Welch’s 20.5% to head the race of six candidates. Since neither got more than 50%, both advanced to the general election on Nov. 3.
The candidates differ on what to do with the Tropicana Field site. The 86 acres will become available when the lease for the Tampa Bay Rays expires at the end of the 2028 season.
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Incumbent Mayor Welch favors a mixed use development on what is being called the Historic Gas Plant District. Earlier this year, he chose The Burg Bid, led by Thompson Whitney Blake.
Crist wants to get more input before moving forward.
"I would first want to appoint a blue ribbon panel to review the existing selected plan before we go to the other plans and see what truly is in the best interest of the citizens of St. Petersburg," he said.
Welch says he made a promise to residents who were removed in the 1980's to build the Trop.
"We have studied this to death for 40 years," he said. "I do not believe we need another study to tell us, hey, we need jobs, housing, economic opportunity, and honoring the promises."
They also differed on their position on a referendum on November's ballot. St. Petersburg residents will be asked to approve a property tax hike to pay for a $600 million bond issue. It would speed up improvements to the city's wastewater, drinking water and flood protection programs.
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Welch has created SPAR, or St. Pete Agile Resilience. It would reduce threats to the city's utilities posed by rising sea levels and storm surge. He said he learned from the closing of sewage treatment plants during the 2024 hurricanes that something has to be done.
"We're not going to kick the can down the road like previous administrations have done," he said of the infrastructure improvements. "The realities of our weather demand that to be a resilient city we have to make those investments now."
"We're doing everything we can through our water rates and storm water rates, which we don't want to raise even higher," Welch said. "Most folks, if you have a home with a taxable value of $500,000 or less, you will be better off through this bond and through raising it through rates, and it will allow us to jumpstart getting those infrastructure improvements in place so that we can be a more resilient city."
But Crist said residents are already being hit by rising prices, and another way should be found to pay for the projects.
"The last thing I want to do is burden you with a bond that has more debt on the city of St. Petersburg than we have right now. We need to live within our means."
"I think that a lot of these issues should have been addressed earlier," Crist said, "with the infrastructure and the piping for our sewer system and our flooding system, it is hard for me to believe that it hasn't been taken care of already."
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City officials say, without the passage of the referendum, it would take 24 years to get the improvements done.
Both candidates also oppose Amendment 3, which will be on the November ballot statewide. It would increase the non-school homestead exemption to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028.
St. Petersburg officials estimate it could reduce city property tax revenue by $33 million in 2028 and $54 million the following year.
