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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWisconsin Giving $250M To Billionaire-Owned Basketball Arena Days After Cutting $250M In Education
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/07/16/wisconsin-giving-250m-to-billionaire-owned-basketball-arena-days-after-cutting-250m-in-education/This month, scientists and academics around the country watched in stunned horror as Walker systematically dismantled his states public university system. Not only did Walkers razor slice hundreds of millions of dollars in vital funding for the University of Wisconsin, but he went a step further, killing professor tenure to boot. Under the guise of holding teachers accountable, Walker undermined a system of education that protected science and learning from being bullied by popular opinion or politics....
In a move that can only be described as trickle up economics Wisconsin lawmakers are dead set on giving $250 million to build a new basketball arena in downtown Milwaukee. As Deadspin points out, the two co-owners of the Bucks basketball team are both billionaires who had demanded the state of Wisconsin foot the majority of the bill or they might take their team elsewhere. Their offer was simple: You pay for this or else.
As usual, supporters of the spending have trotted out the traditional line of defense, claiming the new arena will mean a boost to the Milwaukee economy that will make the arena practically pay for itself. They couldnt be more wrong. Despite that common perception, economists and clear-eyed city officials have long pointed out that getting taxpayers to dump money into sports stadiums is a massive waste. Pacific Standard took a comprehensive look at the stadium myth in 2013 and found absolutely no justification for using public money to purchase a stadium that the team owners might otherwise pay for themselves.
What the Buck?
randys1
(16,286 posts)The hospitals will only be available to people with the very best health insurance or just money and the sports teams price their tickets high enough to keep the Blah, uh I mean riff raff out.
Education is only for the elite and only a certain type of education...
PeaceNikki
(27,985 posts)LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Seattle, for example. We lost the Sonics.
It is what it is.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)As the Kings nearly did before Sacramento caved in and built them a Xanadu-like pleasure palace downtown.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)When we lost our beloved team right as we drafted Kevin Durant, that hurt bad. I'd rather have an expansion team than inflict that pain on other fans. But you know the NBA, they hate expansions aka splitting the pot.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Seattle is a major metropolitan area. That other place, not so much. Yeah, yeah, yeah, old arena, but weren't the TV rights worth more than he's getting now? And no competition from hockey, either, unlike most markets your size.
PeaceNikki
(27,985 posts)It's total bullshit that the billionares held us hostage and that our legislatures took money from education for this shit.
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)Greedy little pigs.
ruffburr
(1,190 posts)You're talking about our next POTUS , 'Not'
Initech
(100,097 posts)postulater
(5,075 posts)Well, it is for Walker.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)An education, not so much.
Uncle Joe
(58,389 posts)Thanks for the thread, KamaAina.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)Dems in Milwaukee wanted this, but Dems in the state senate held back because the proposal called for money to be raised by harsh fines and property forfeitures...but they gave in substituting a 4 million dollar per year reduction in aid from the state to Milwaukee County for the next 20 years...
"Republicans who supported the bill had to turn to minority Democrats for help getting to 17 votes.
Democratic senators met for most of the day Tuesday and most of Wednesday afternoon ironing out what they wanted in the bill. They finally emerged from their meetings late Wednesday afternoon with a number of changes.
One of them calls for a $2 ticket surcharge, with $1.50 going to the arena's governing district and 50 cents going to the state. The surcharge would increase state revenues by $500,000 and the district's revenues by $1.5 million, according to a Legislative Fiscal Bureau analysis.
The original bill called for the state to make an $8 million annual contribution to the project with tax dollars. The state would have offset $4 million of that contribution by taking over collecting past-due debt on Milwaukee County-issued fines, forfeitures and property taxes and pumping the first $4 million of that revenue back into the general fund, with the balance going back to the county.
Democrats balked at that plan, saying it would burden poor people struggling to pay their debt. They erased the provision but allowed language calling for slashing state aid to Milwaukee County by $4 million each year until 2035."
IcyPeas
(21,901 posts)-------------------------
In the last two decades, he said, 90 percent of U.S. sports stadiums have been rebuilt on the dime of local taxpayers. Some $12 billion was spent on 51 new luxury facilities between 2000 and 2010 alone, according to Oliver.
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According to Oliver, teams not only receive taxpayer-funded facilities, but they also often get to keep the income from stadium naming rights, concessions, luxury boxes, and non-sports events held on the property. The Florida Marlins owner framed it candidly: Thats the whole object of this, is to get more revenue.
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And the exorbitant spending didnt stop there. As GOP candidates raise concerns over tax funding for programs such as Obamacare provisions and SNAP food programs, millions of dollars are still pouring into athletic construction projects. Just last month, presidential hopeful Walker announced plans for a new $500 million stadium for the Bucks. These renovations follow in the footsteps of the 2013 construction of Miamis Marlins Park, which also received the same nine-figure approval in county funding leaving only 20 percent of the budget to be organized through other means.
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But for now, tax dollars continue to filter out of government budgets and into the hands of lucrative sports franchises.