In the past, about 12.5percentt of ticket revenues went to the participating teams, along with profits from concessions, billboard ads and parking fees, sports economists said.
The Republicans said Sunday night that they would provide the one vote needed to approve a 55-cent55-centse in the cigarette tax, a 7percentt hotel and motel tax, a tax on billboards and several other fees.
The governor's plan would raise cigarette taxes by 55 cents a pack, impose a 7percenttaxax on hotel and motel rooms and a 90-cent monthly fee on each telephone line, raise the tax rate on casino revenues to 10percentt from 8percentt and increase taxes and fees on billboards and real estate sales.
At the height of the budget battle last month, the governor proposed a huge increase in state fees paid by billboard companies.
Emanuel Levin, president of the Outdoor Advertising Association of New Jersey, said the plan would have been a disaster for billboard owners because the high fees would have discouraged companies from operating in the state, already the highest in the nation.
During hearings before the Senate Budget Committee, billboard companies testified that the fee increase would eat a large chunk of their revenue.
Paul Colford, a spokesman for The A.P., said that Weatherproof had paid it the appropriate license fee for the billboard image, "but the agreement is that it requires the licensing party, in this case the Weatherproof Garment Company, to obtain the necessary clearances — that is their obligation".
A single service credit, typically 25% of that fee, costs the billboard company $875.
The Paris scheme is entirely financed by JCDecaux, which is counting on rental fees and the sale of billboard advertising to cover its running costs and recoup the €90m ($126m) investment required to set it up.
The Senate Budget Committee is expected to receive an assortment of bills from the McGreevey administration calling for $740 million in new taxes and fees on cigarettes, casinos, hotels, billboards and telephone bills.
