In Stadium Building Spree, U.S. Taxpayers Lose $4 Billion

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) New York Giants fans will cheer on their team against the Dallas Cowboys at tonight’s National Football League opener in New Jersey. At tax time, they’ll help pay for the opponents’ $1.2 billion home field in Texas.

That’s because the 80,000-seat Cowboys Stadium was built partly using tax-free borrowing by the City of Arlington. The resulting subsidy comes out of the pockets of every American taxpayer, including Giants fans. The money doesn’t go directly to the Cowboys’ billionaire owner Jerry Jones. Rather, it lowers the cost of financing, giving his team the highest revenue in the NFL and making it the league’s most-valuable franchise.

“It’s part of the corruption of the federal tax system,” said James Runzheimer, 67, an Arlington lawyer who led opponents of public borrowing for the structure known locally as “Jerry’s World.” “It’s use of government funds to subsidize activity that the private sector can finance on its own.”

Jones is one of dozens of wealthy owners whose big-league teams benefit from millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies. Michael Jordan’s Charlotte, North Carolina, Bobcats basketball team plays in a municipal bond-financed stadium, the Time Warner Cable Arena, where the Democratic Party is meeting this week. The Republicans last week used Florida’s Tampa Bay Times Forum, also financed with tax-exempt debt. It is the home of hockey’s Lightning, owned by hedge-fund manager Jeffrey Vinik. None of the owners who responded would comment. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-05/in-stadium-building-spree-u-s-taxpayers-lose-4-billion.html

[eppur_se_muova]

1. The real "Welfare Queens" ... nt

[n2doc]

2. And yet Cleveland Browns just sold for $1 billion

What a scam.

[Odin2005]

3. The Viking's new stadium is a perfect example.

That pissed me off. WTF is wrong with the Metrodome???

[DefenseLawyer]

4. There is value in public works

even though a valid argument can be made that public stadiums are a boon to already wealthy sports team owners, it is not as if they have no value to the public at large. That is typically why the public, even in Tea Party America, generally will even agree to increased taxes to pay for such projects; because, correct or not, they perceive some value to them in the project. Rather than shutting down such projects I'd rather use it as a model for even expansive public works projects in our cities.