Post by mikecubs on Feb 12, 2022 6:17:56 GMT -6
Friday roundup: VA proposes spending a damn billion dollars on Commanders stadium, all other news pales in comparison
access_timeFebruary 11, 2022 personNeil deMause
That Virginia bill to create a football authority to build a Washington Commanders stadium isn’t just authorizing legislation, it turns out — last night it also got financing details during a senate committee hearing, and the numbers are jaw-dropping: $1 billion in state money toward a $3 billion stadium, to be paid off from “a projected $3 billion dollars in tax revenue from the new stadium” over 30 years.
The first question to ask, obviously: Would this be actual new tax revenue, or money kicked back from existing taxes in a stadium district (a TIF), or what? WUSA-TV, which appears to be the only news outlet that was paying attention to last night’s state senate finance and appropriations committee hearing, cited bill sponsor Sen. Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax) as promising that borrowing $1 billion dollars for a stadium “does not create a penny of debt.” (Yup, he said that.) WUSA also cited George Mason University business professor and former Commanders exec George Perry as saying this “doesn’t appear” to be taxpayer funding, though in an accompanying video Perry also warned that a football stadium open only a handful of days a year shouldn’t necessarily be expected to spark a ton of surrounding development, so who the hell knows, man.
The bill’s financing plan doesn’t look to have been posted to the senate committee’s website yet, despite a promise there that “presentation materials are posted to our Web page at the beginning of each meeting,” so this one news report is really all we have to go on so far. Further updates on Monday, I hope; in the meantime, settle in from the sticker shock over maybe the biggest NFL stadium subsidy proposal in history with some other news from the week that was:
www.fieldofschemes.com/2022/02/11/18490/friday-roundup-va-proposes-spending-a-damn-billion-dollars-on-commanders-stadium-all-other-news-pales-in-comparison/#comments
access_timeFebruary 11, 2022 personNeil deMause
That Virginia bill to create a football authority to build a Washington Commanders stadium isn’t just authorizing legislation, it turns out — last night it also got financing details during a senate committee hearing, and the numbers are jaw-dropping: $1 billion in state money toward a $3 billion stadium, to be paid off from “a projected $3 billion dollars in tax revenue from the new stadium” over 30 years.
The first question to ask, obviously: Would this be actual new tax revenue, or money kicked back from existing taxes in a stadium district (a TIF), or what? WUSA-TV, which appears to be the only news outlet that was paying attention to last night’s state senate finance and appropriations committee hearing, cited bill sponsor Sen. Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax) as promising that borrowing $1 billion dollars for a stadium “does not create a penny of debt.” (Yup, he said that.) WUSA also cited George Mason University business professor and former Commanders exec George Perry as saying this “doesn’t appear” to be taxpayer funding, though in an accompanying video Perry also warned that a football stadium open only a handful of days a year shouldn’t necessarily be expected to spark a ton of surrounding development, so who the hell knows, man.
The bill’s financing plan doesn’t look to have been posted to the senate committee’s website yet, despite a promise there that “presentation materials are posted to our Web page at the beginning of each meeting,” so this one news report is really all we have to go on so far. Further updates on Monday, I hope; in the meantime, settle in from the sticker shock over maybe the biggest NFL stadium subsidy proposal in history with some other news from the week that was:
www.fieldofschemes.com/2022/02/11/18490/friday-roundup-va-proposes-spending-a-damn-billion-dollars-on-commanders-stadium-all-other-news-pales-in-comparison/#comments
