Anne Arundel County Executive John G. Gary ought to say what he really thinks about the Washington Redskins' plan to build a football stadium in Laurel.
In the past, Mr. Gary has said that he doesn't care if Redskins' owner Jack Kent Cooke builds his football complex elsewhere. Mr. Gary won't even meet with Mr. Cooke because he says he won't be manipulated by the Redskins the way former Gov. William Donald Schaefer was toyed with by the National Football League when he tried win a team for Baltimore.
The Anne Arundel executive has insisted that the Redskins will have to play by the rules and make their own way through the county Board of Appeals process as they try to overturn an administrative hearing officer's ruling that the Laurel site favored by the Redskins is unsuitable for the 78,000-seat stadium.
But despite this tough talk, Mr. Gary has let slip a few words that make us wonder if he really isn't a secret fan of the Laurel stadium.
First, Mr. Gary said he would give the Redskins a $2 million break in property taxes if the team built a football stadium in Laurel. Last month, his spokesman, Larry R. Telford, was quoted as saying Mr. Cooke "will never find a better site than Anne Arundel County." And most recently, Mr. Gary said he might ask the Anne Arundel County Council to change the existing zoning laws to allow a stadium to be built in Laurel if he thinks the Redskins aren't given a "fair playing field" before the Board of Appeals.
That makes no sense. Why require the Redskins to go through the time-consuming appeals process if Mr. Gary wants to render the board's ruling moot by proposing a change in the zoning laws?
Understandably, Mr. Gary is tempted by the nearly $5 million in tax revenue that an Arthur Andersen & Co. study said the stadium would bring to the county. Although many residents in Laurel believe the stadium would ruin their neighborhood, Mr. Gary would probably hate it if the Redskins were to build on an alternate site just four miles south in Prince George's County. That would stick Anne Arundel with traffic problems and give it none of the tax benefits.
Since last fall, Mr. Gary has talked his way across a tightrope on the stadium proposal, tipping this way one moment, that way the next. It's time he made clear his true colors, even if they are burgundy and gold.