Tax Breaks for Sporting Events Raise Questions

[TexasTowelie]

When lawmakers gave Comptroller Susan Combs more power to spend tax money to attract sporting events and conventions to the state, the idea was to generate economic development in Texas that might go somewhere else.

But in recent years Combs has used that power to approve millions of dollars in expenditures on events that originated here and don’t appear to be leaving Texas anytime soon.

Over the last two years, Combs, a Republican, has signed off on spending $2 million in state tax money to help defray the costs of the Cotton Bowl, a postseason college football game held in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since 1937; $1.5 million to help finance the Alamo Bowl college football games, played in San Antonio since its inception in 1993; and $2 million to stage two NASCAR auto races — the AAA Texas 500 and the Samsung Mobile 500 — that were specifically designed for Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

<<snip>>

Combs’ office says the event fund expenditures, which hit an all-time high of $78 million last year, are authorized by the Legislature and supported by the cities in which events are being held. The cities also say the fund has been an invaluable tool in attracting and retaining marquee events.

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-taxes/comptroller-of-public-accounts/comptrollers-tax-breaks-raise-questions/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Top%20Stories

[font color=green]Who said that the GOP doesn't support welfare? [/font]

[sonias]

1. They only support corporate welfare

Don't you know that corporations are people too? Oh how they suffer.