Arlington Voters Approve Public Money for New Rangers Park

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Proponents of Arlington taxpayer funding for a $1 billion retractable-roof Texas Rangers stadium have won approval.

With 98 percent of the vote counted, voters approved by a 60-to-40-percent margin Tuesday the extension of a half-cent sales tax, 2 percent hotel-occupancy tax and 5 percent car-rental tax for a new home for the Major League Baseball team. That revenue now goes to defraying Arlington's $155 million debt on its share of the cost of the NFL Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium, which opened in 2009.

The vote also allows a 10 percent admission tax and a $3 parking tax for the Rangers' use, the same deal reached for the Cowboys.

Although the Rangers hadn't publicly threatened to leave, a team representative held preliminary talks with Dallas officials about a covered stadium there.