Trump has no power over what states spend or what they choose to spend it on.
...and it’s well and good he doesn’t. States, counties, cities, and municipalities can decide on their own where to spend their money (as long as the feds don’t ever bail them out).
It’s ridiculous to even suggest Trump should ban spending taxpayer money on stadiums. That’s “supreme leader” NORKlandia statist control territory.
“Trump has no power over what states spend or what they choose to spend it on.”
Oh, really?
Brookings Now
Top 10 biggest federal subsidies for pro stadiums (Hint: the Yankees are #1)
Eric Bull
Friday, September 9, 2016
It’s no secret that private, professional sports stadiums are increasingly built with taxpayer dollars. Different experts have estimated the total stadium bill from
$10 billion to $12 billion in recent years.
Unsurprisingly, adding up the numbers can be tricky business. Stadium deals come in many forms and often include a mix of state, local, and federal subsidies in the form of land, infrastructure improvements, cash payments, tax-free municipal bonds, and more.
It’s the last one, tax-free municipal bonds, on which Ted Gayer, Austin Drukker, and Alexander Gold have focused their research. In a new paper from Economic Studies at Brookings, “Tax-Exempt Municipal Bonds and the Financing of Professional Sports Stadiums,” they take a comprehensive look at the federal side of stadium subsidies. They find that since 2000 alone, federal taxpayers have footed $3.2 billion toward private sports stadiums through subsidies in the form of tax-exempt municipal bonds. The amount of revenue the federal government loses gets even bigger—$3.7 billion—when the additional tax benefits that the high-income bond holders receive are taken into account.
A simpler way to look at it: Working families in Alaska are seeing their tax dollars go toward Yankee Stadium, a private stadium for a team valued at $3.4 billion located over 4,000 miles away. But as you can see in the list below, if you’re a sports fan in New York, Houston, or Cincinnati, you’re getting a pretty good deal.