Our tax dollars not for stadiums
Would you be outraged if the city and/or county wrote a multimillion-dollar check and gave it, with no strings attached, to a super-rich individual? This is essentially what happens when a city or county builds and finances a sports stadium or arena for a millionaire or billionaire who happens to own a sports team.
There is no credible justification for a taxing authority to collect taxes from people who, in some cases, can hardly afford to go to a ball game and use these taxes to benefit a privately owned business.
Most taxpayers pay their taxes in the hope and expectation that our homes and streets will be safe, our children will receive a good education and our streets will not have potholes. Benefiting a privately owned business was never supposed to be part of the equation. To add insult to injury, according to a recent article in the Time Free Press, sometimes a sports team will leave town before their taxpayer-financed stadium is fully paid for.
Jim Olson