Taxes, Stadiums, Arenas and Grover Norquist
A brief history lesson: In 1964, the city of Philadelphia issued $25 million in Bonds to build a multi-purpose stadium for the two major sports teams in the city, the Phillies and Eagles. The Phillies were playing in Shibe Park, which was so old that it was condemned three years before it closed down. The Eagles were playing at Franklin Field, at the University of Pennsylvania, a venue better known for the Penn Relays than football. In 1966, an additional $15 million was added on to build an arena for the 76ers and the new NHL expansion team, the Flyers.
The venues that were built, Veterans Stadium and The Spectrum, are both long gone now. Replaced by venues with corporate names and interchangeable sponsors. But here’s the kicker about those 1964 Bonds. The debt service on those stadiums were finally paid off in 2012, almost 50 years later.
In 1986, fresh off a near Electoral sweep in getting re-elected two years earlier, Ronald Reagan got Congress to pass the 1986 Tax Law, which has remained unchanged to this day. The law, which would take a tax attorney, a government wonk and an expert in both sports and politics to cut through the bullshit and tell you what this 31-year-old law does, was written by none other than Grover Norquist, the neebish, then 29-year old White House assistant, who threw in some real corporate goodies inside so-called “tax reform.”
Ever wonder why college tuition now costs three times as much as a new car? Or you have to pay to have your kid play sports in high school? Or why school districts are woefully underfunded or road construction never gets finished on time? Ask your local or state official. They probably can’t tell you, at least the truth, because hey, they’ve been brought and sold off K-Street so much, they’re like cattle.
The ’86 tax law has in it a provision allowing for public money to be used to build stadiums and arenas for private use and that in so said stadium or arena’s ‘owners’ can keep up to 92 cents on the dollar, meaning that the debt service on say, the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, which will be replaced in 15 years, won’t be paid off until 2090.
All this is the handiwork of Norquist, who leads a euphemistically called group “Americans for Tax Fairness,” which is as fraudulent as its name. The only group of people they want to protect is the richest of the rich. This from a man who at 12 years old in 1968 devised a plan to dissolve government.
“I don’t want to get rid of government, I just want to shrink it down to where I can put it in the bathtub and drown it.”
Lovely man, don’t you agree? If only he’d of gotten laid in 1969.
So, when you bitch about school millage or paying to have your kid play at your local middle or high school or the fact that no money is ever spent towards infrastructure or high-speed rail or better-than Amtrak train service, this is why. When your state legislature hands out tax breaks to large corporations and cuts social services and road funding, this is why.
Next month, the Detroit Red Wings and Pistons will open up their new arena downtown. In addition to the arena, the Pistons will be building a new practice facility and team headquarters three miles north. Despite opposition and a few court battles and a potential vote on whether $34 million in public money should be spent on the New Center area facility, the facility will open and be ready for both basketball and hockey (and presumingly, other events as well) while the fate of Joe Louis Arena and the Palace of Auburn Hills await the wrecking ball.
There are other cities facing similar situations. Phoenix, Tampa, Montreal, Raleigh, Columbus, Seattle and Calgary are all in need of new stadiums and they all want taxpayer money to pay for the majority of it. They’ll get it eventually. Even New York City and Los Angeles are caught up in that trap as well. A new football stadium is going up in Inglewood at the old Hollywood Race Track to house the Rams and the Chargers. The Chargers are playing their home games in Carson, where LA’s soccer team, the Galaxy play. Since soccer and football use a different kid of grass field to play on, the field will have to be replaced every year the Chargers play there until the new stadium is finished in 2021. Also, a new soccer stadium for a second MLS team in LA is being built on the site of the old LA Sports Arena which will be ready by next season.
It used to be that owners, like O’Malley, Briggs and others, built or improved their stadiums. Those days are gone. So, next time you pay a $45,000 tuition bill for your kid to attend college or your axle is busted after hitting a pothole or your home is condemned after a sewer line collapses, or it takes forever to go on the train from Detroit to Chicago, remember that you (and probably your parents), voted for Reagan in 1984. And unwittingly, screwed yourselves.
