It's unconstitutional, but corrupt members of Congress don't give a damn because the billionaire sports team owners have stuffed so much money in their pockets and lavished so many free tickets and entertainment on them over the years. I'm talking about the loophole in federal tax law that permits tax-exempt status for bonds issued to build sports stadiums that are used exclusively for the private benefit of the billionaire sports team owners like Jim Irsay and Herb Simon. The budget President Barack Obama released earlier this week calls for the elimination of the loophole created by the misnamed Tax Reform Act of 1986.
Since 1986, there has been $17 billion in tax-exempt bonds issued to build sports stadiums in America, costing the U.S. Treasury at least $4 billion. President Obama's proposal would take the government off the hook to subsidize new stadiums if the debt is issued after December 31, 2015, unless the stadium is used 90% or more for a public and not a private use. Given that you can't get elected to Congress unless you are owned by the 1% club, the chances of its passage are slim to none. Of course, if a miracle happens and it becomes law, sports-happy leaders in cities and states like Indianapolis and Indiana will just pick up the slack and make the peasants pay all the more to keep their billionaire masters happy.
2 comments:
America has not enjoyed a true "free market" system since the early 20th Century circa 1913 as the "Progressives" (read as: liberal Democrats) deviously used timing and bribery and false information and the wealthy special interests to get Congress to create The Federal Reserve. Oh wait... that's just how liberal Democrats rammed Obamacare down the majority's unwilling throats.
I do not use terms such as "capitalism" and "middle class" because these are the terms of Marxism. These terms were coined by Karl Marx [Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital] and created to divide a united people and to incite envy and anger among those united group(go look it up). Marx, who never held a real job in his entire life and kept his wife and children in dreary poverty (it's true, go look it up) told the rest of us workers and achievers how to live... just like the politicians of all labels today who curry to the 1% special interests and who write tax loopholes such as the one Advance Indiana describes.
We citizens are slaves of parasitic politicians of all party affiliations who couldn't hold as high salary jobs in just about any private sector and who must forcefully through law take from us that they cannot achieve on their own.
There was a prior attempt by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan - Democrat from NY in 1996 with a bill that would eliminate Federal tax breaks for new professional sports arenas. According to the Article I found at http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/14/nyregion/moynihan-s-tax-break-bill-could-foil-dreams-of-fields.html
Another article on same subject -http://articles.philly.com/1996-07-29/news/25619585_1_tax-exempt-bonds-stadiums-public-securities-association From the Article -
Let's get it straight. Unless current federal law is changed, interest payments from the billions of dollars of upcoming stadium bonds will be totally tax-free to the affluent investors who buy them. These are general purpose bonds - bonds Congress intended to finance such truly public purposes as schools, libraries, roads, sewers and public buildings.
Obviously, Indianapolis has taken the well traveled path many times to build stadiums in lieu of Public Infrastructure.
Et tu Westfield if my Latin is correct.
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