Property Tax Relief Would Deepen Illinois Budget Deficit
Adding property tax "relief" to a $2B Bears tax break would just blow an even bigger hole in the state budget, so Illinois would either have to raise other taxes to compensate or cut spending on other services. https://t.co/H7JB6qsTTZ
Rays CEO Urges Immediate $1B Stadium Funding or Exit
Rays CEO Ken Babby warned the Hillsborough County Commission that "time and action are of the essence" for a $1B stadium subsidy or else "we would have no choice but to evaluate alternatives," in a tour de force of don't-make-me-come-in-there-ism....
Rays Stadium Funding Eyed From Promised‑off Sales Tax, Disaster Funds
Sources of public money for a Rays stadium may include sales tax money that voters were told wouldn't be used for stadiums, catastrophic/disaster response funds, property taxes from the area around the proposed stadium, and reply hazy, ask again later....
Tax Dollars Funding Stadium Arms Race in Tampa
Spending tax money to upgrade Tampa's football stadium so it can compete with a new Tampa baseball stadium built with tax money may seem like an odd way to run a railroad, but this is where we are. https://t.co/GGqVpl2tCV
Mayor Proposes $600M TIF, Siphoning Local Tax Revenue
Mayor Quinton Lucas has floated a $600m TIF district for the entire Crown Center — which would siphon off not just taxes from spending on baseball, but on Kansas Citians going out to eat or even visiting the aquarium in...
AECOM’s Stadium Impact Study: Definitive but Hallucinated Data
Maybe it's best to say AECOM "hallucinated" the economic impact of a Rays stadium, since much like AI, its report produces definitive answers while giving no reason to believe they're more accurate than what you'd get from asking the nearest...
Direct Democracy Blocks Sports Subsidies; Officials Easier to Sway
Direct democracy is historically a stumbling block for sports subsidies: Royals owner John Sherman could certainly pour money into fighting a stadium ballot measure, but it's been proven way easier to win over a handful of local elected officials. https://t.co/209xlVYFVD
Rays Stadium Could Cost Taxpayers $2‑4 Billion
We're at a minimum of $2.1B in public costs for the entire Rays stadium project, and a maximum of who the hell knows, but numbers like $4B or even higher are certainly not out of the realm of possibility. https://t.co/BTf9Ny0pwk
Royals' $600M Deal Raises Public Land Cost Questions
So ... $600m in cash? Would the Royals pay anything for the public land they'd be using? Would they pay property taxes? Rent? A cut of stadium revenues? The known unknowns are stacking up fast. https://t.co/kvnbRFiSYN
Stadium Funding Threatens $2.6B Infrastructure Projects
Hillsborough County previously identified $2.6B worth of roads, sewers, etc. to use Community Reinvestment Tax funds on — meaning diverting $437m to a Rays stadium could require cutting back on building actual public infrastructure. https://t.co/AY7YLzBXOF
Bears Owner Stays Put; Illinois Can't Match Indiana's $4B Offer
All this "Illinois is on the clock or we'll move to Indiana" talk should make clear: Bears owner George McCaskey would rather not leave the state, or he'd have already accepted Indiana's $4B stadium offer because there's no way Illinois...