Circus

We keep being told how eliminating property taxes will mean roads, the fire department, and schools will be unfunded. They tell you so because everyone wants those services, but here is a great example of where property taxes go.

That’s right- Hillsboro county is going to use a billion dollars of taxpayer funds to build a new stadium for the Tamp Bay Rays. That works out to nearly $2,000 per household. They powers that be claim no one will notice, because the billion will come from county reserves. See, you won’t notice how we stole a bunch of money from you so we could pay a bunch of grown men a hundred million apiece to play a child’s game.

Incidentally, the team is worth $1.7 billion, but the taxpayers are expected to build half of the $2.8 billion stadium they will play in. How about instead, we let the taxpayers keep their money, and the team can charge what the traffic will bear for tickets instead of forcing taxpayers to fund your business?

EDITED TO ADD:

If the new field lasts as long as the old one, the stadium will cost $80 million for each year it’s used, or about $1 million per game. There are 25,000 seats in the stadium, meaning the team would have to add $40 to the price of each and every ticket to pay for the stadium themselves. That seems reasonable to me, and if people won’t pay it, then does Tampa really need baseball?