51–60 of 296 posts
The increased tax revenue really surprised them despite the projections being made before the recession. (A 25 year bond only taking 11 years to pay off.)
[1]https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2017/09/13/6...
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How would one propose to make it illegal for an elected government to finance construction of a public building? I mean, yeah, sports stadiums are wasteful. But how would you draft that such that it wouldn't eliminate libraries and museums? I mean, I agree with you in spirit but at the end of the day the whole point of a democratic government is that it's empowered to work to better our collective lives. And that has…
>dumb-but-popular Do you have a recent example of a new football stadium that had popular support among the constituent taxpayers? My memory can only recall ones opposed by the general public.
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There’s a huge corpus of jurisprudence on this in the EU, where such funding is illegal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_aid_(European_Union)
Doesnt stop them giving land for free and supporting infrastructure though. Which can be a huge part of the cost. Aalianz Arena (munich) is a good example
Governments can usually spend to improve general resources around a project, but not contribute to the project itself. With the idea of preventing market distortion from subsidy and a race to the bottom between different states.
I’m surprised they can give land for free, I’d have thought that would fall foul of the legislation.
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Libraries provide dozens of services to those in low-income areas. Lots of people utilize the library for internet service.
As it turns out, homeless people can't easily keep laptops on them and afford to hang out at Starbucks all day. Public libraries give them and other low income people opportunities to develop skills and education, and electronic resources to find a long-term career that can take them out of poverty.
And heck, with what happened recently, neither can Professional people who are minorities and look like they don’t belong....
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/16/arrest-of-tw...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How would one propose to make it illegal for an elected government to finance construction of a public building? I mean, yeah, sports stadiums are wasteful. But how would you draft that such that it wouldn't eliminate libraries and museums? I mean, I agree with you in spirit but at the end of the day the whole point of a democratic government is that it's empowered to work to better our collective lives. And that has…
> But how would you draft that such that it wouldn't eliminate libraries and museums Maybe we should. These days, public libraries are little more than homeless shelters. I haven't been to one in at least 5 years for that reason, and printed books are largely irrelevant in today's world anyway. Museums could be operated by private non-profits and foundations. No need to have taxpayers directly finance their construct…
Art Modell, the owner of the Cleveland Browns, moved the team to Baltimore right after the taxpayers built them a new stadium. Even though these events happened in the mid-90's and Modell died in 2012, his name is still considered a curse word in Cleveland.
You might be conflating the football stadium with Jacobs Field, which was built for the Indians. (American League Baseball)
The original Browns played at Cleveland Municipal Stadium until they became the Baltimore Ravens.
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> How would one propose to make it illegal for an elected government to finance construction of a public building? State constitutional amendments requiring a referendum.
Well, sure. That works if these things are unpopular. They're not. That's the problem. Lost in the discussion of how many hundreds of million dollars St. Louis lost in its relationship with the Rams is the fact that the city loved that team and the stadium construction was a huge deal and a big political victory. The underlying flaw in the reasoning here is that it's all based on a personal feeling that "My governmen…
There's no payback for politicians that waste tax money either explicitly or via tax breaks. Nor for them misstating benefits or outright lying about them.
So yea if politicians around the country are not held responsible then complaining is indeed a waste of time.