Using tax revenues earmarked to pay down D.C.’s debt to instead publicly subsidize a new soccer stadium is a chancy policy decision that puts taxpayers at risk, Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi warned in a recent memo.

In his Feb. 7 analysis, Gandhi advised that the District would collect enough money through ballpark taxes and fees to retire the Washington Nationals’ stadium debt by 2026, 10 years earlier than projected. Or, he wrote, D.C. could gamble and use the excess revenues — projected to reach $20 million a year by 2027 — to buy more bonds for capital projects.