It would seem that if somebody can afford to buy a professional sports team, they should be able to pay for a stadium. That’s not the case. Time after time, billionaires lean on the taxpayers to for state of the art ballparks and arenas. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Cay Johnston tackles this issue and many others in his new book Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You with the Bill)
George Steinbrenner is getting over $600 million for the new Yankee Stadium in New York. The New York Mets are getting over $600 million. In fact, the City of New York gave them money to lobby against the taxpayers to get more money. Rudy Giuliani gave $50 million to the two teams for that purpose.
The new owners of the Washington Nationals baseball team in Washington, D.C., paid $450 million for the team. But, in fact, they got the team for free, because the subsidy they’re getting for the new stadium is worth $611 million. We actually paid these people to buy the team.
We’re paying rich people to buy teams.. And I thought the lottery was supposed to be the tax for stupid people.. Johnston goes on to say that these tactics led to money being taken away from public parks and programs for children. The absence of the programs and services led to the rise of urban and suburban gangs.
The conversation turned to President Bush and his ownership of the Texas Rangers. The entire statement is definitely worth the minute it’ll take you to read it. Here’s a small clip:
The value of this subsidy, according to Ray Hutchison, who is the husband of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, is a prominent Republican insider in Texas and is the leading authority on municipal bond finance in Texas, was $202.5 million. The profit that President Bush and his partners made when they sold the team was $164 million. What does that tell you? Every single penny of additional money President Bush got from that investment, his gain, came from the taxpayers. He did not add one cent to the value of that team through his skill as an MBA manager. This gets repeated all over the country.
And then when President Bush filed his tax return, he should have reported that the 10 percent share he had, the one that was given to him as compensation for being general manager, was wage income. And, of course, we tax wages at a higher rate than we do capital income, like capital gains. President Bush therefore shorted the government $3.4 million.
The rich get richer for a reason. They know how. It would be easy to sit here and rip the Prez or the Boss, but who’s not looking for a hook-up? If I owned a team and I could find some suckers to pay for a stadium, I would do it. So would you. But I don’t own a team so footing the bill for billionaires is ridiculous. The taxpayers need to let the rich owners finance their own stadiums. It’s not like owners are gonna share any of the profits.
“Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You with the Bill)â€. Courtesy of Democracy Now.org
