How the NFL fleeces the taxpayer

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How the NFL fleeces the taxpayer

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How the NFL Fleeces Taxpayers - Gregg Easterbrook - The Atlantic

Quote:

Last year was a busy one for public giveaways to the National Football League. In Virginia, Republican Governor Bob McDonnell, who styles himself as a budget-slashing conservative crusader, took $4 million from taxpayers? pockets and handed the money to the Washington Redskins, for the team to upgrade a workout facility. Hoping to avoid scrutiny, McDonnell approved the gift while the state legislature was out of session. The Redskins? owner, Dan Snyder, has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $1 billion. But even billionaires like to receive expensive gifts. Taxpayers in Hamilton County, Ohio, which includes Cincinnati, were hit with a bill for $26 million in debt service for the stadiums where the NFL?s Bengals and Major League Baseball?s Reds play, plus another $7 million to cover the direct operating costs for the Bengals? field. Pro-sports subsidies exceeded the $23.6 million that the county cut from health-and-human-services spending in the current two-year budget (and represent a sizable chunk of the $119 million cut from Hamilton County schools). Press materials distributed by the Bengals declare that the team gives back about $1 million annually to Ohio community groups. Sound generous? That?s about 4 percent of the public subsidy the Bengals receive annually from Ohio taxpayers.

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Quote:

In his office at 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell must smile when Texas exempts the Cowboys? stadium from taxes, or the governor of Minnesota bows low to kiss the feet of the NFL. The National Football League is about two things: producing high-quality sports entertainment, which it does very well, and exploiting taxpayers, which it also does very well. Goodell should know?his pay, about $30 million in 2011, flows from an organization that does not pay corporate taxes. That?s right?extremely profitable and one of the most subsidized organizations in American history, the NFL also enjoys tax-exempt status. On paper, it is the Nonprofit Football League.

I note that there are folks of all political stripes that love and fervently defend tax payer dollars going towards new stadia, citing job creation, economy boosts. While at the same time going apoplectic over Wall St. bailouts. Invariably, inside of ten years, more taxpayer theft is needed to pay for upgrades to these stadia that the average taxpayer doesn't want, does't need, and will never use.

Governments are not net producers in the economy. They are sucking chest wounds on the economy.

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