With the Hurricanes now seriously considering a move to Dolphin Stadium, one has to wonder what happens to the estimated $84 million the city has set aside to renovate the Orange Bowl, if, in fact, the aging stadium doesn’t get its facelift. Especially considering that $50 million of that comes from a Miami-Dade County bond issue voters approved in 2004.

That $50 million was part of the $2.9 billion general obligation bond and was designated for parks and recreation facilities, with the Orange Bowl renovation counting as one of the planned projects.

According to the county attorney’s office there are two possibilities if an Orange Bowl renovation is abandoned: the bonds would just not be issued; or the money could be used for another parks and recreational facilities project, but only if a public hearing on the switch is held.

“It could be modified with a public hearing before the commission,” Assistant County Attorney Gerry Heffernan said. “The board [of county commissioners] can decide to reallocate it … but it has to be done in a public hearing.”

Heffernan said the bond project is a 15-year program and there is at least one other example of a use being modified after public debate.

Are you thinking cash for a stadium for the Marlins?

Some city and county officials working on a $490 million financing plan for ballpark just north of the county government center in downtown Miami say that hasn’t been contemplated. Heffernan also said the question hasn’t been raised, but most likely a Marlins stadium could qualify under the terms of the bond issue program, again, as long as a public hearing is held.

The framework of a ballpark financing plan counts on the county contributing $145 million in hotel bed taxes (Convention Development and Professional Sports Facilities Franchises taxes) and the city chipping in $108 million in Tourist Development Taxes and Convention Development taxes that would have otherwise gone to pay off the bonds on Miami Arena, but were freed up with the venue’s sale in 2004.

Are the Marlins and the OB inextricably linked? Miami Arena was sold in part to raise money for a Marlins ballpark project and to help fund renovations of the Orange Bowl. City and county officials spent much of 2004 and 2005 negotiating a financing plan for a ballpark next to the Orange Bowl. The deal ultimately fell apart, but it added to the delay in OB renovations, which the University of Miami have been expecting since the Hurricanes won their most recent national championship in 2001.

City and county officials are firmly focused on the downtown location for a ballpark these days, not Little Havana, and will be discussing the financing plan this week. A detailed financing plan is expected by the end of April -- and so is a decision on whether OB renovations can be funded or if UM will make the move north.