Friday, October 06, 2006
If you live in St. Louis then you know the owners of the Cardinals are required to build a Ball Park Village as an addition to the new stadium. They have three years to do so or face a $3 million dollar penalty per year until this village is completed.
It was initially conceived this add on to the stadium would coast about $60 million dollars but recent developments reveals the actual cost to be more in the neighborhood of $600 million. So now the Cardinals management are crying poor and wanting the tax payers to pick up some of these costs.
They want the tax payers of St. Louis to pay the initial investment and then give them a tax break on the revenues earned. If the city of St. Louis complies, they would assume no ownership role in the business, nor would they get any revenue gaining privileges. This sounds like a bad investment for the tax payers.
Usually when a percentage of the startup costs are paid by an individual or entity, that individual or entity gets ownership in the business and shares in the revenues. Part of the American dream involves risk but I have heard Bill DeWitt will not even personally finance any of his business projects. He prefers to have others take that plunge for him while he collects the revenues without sharing in any of the risks.
What about the businesses that have been operating in the area for years? Why should we give an unfair advantage to the Cardinals owners to dominate this market? The businesses already operating in the area did not start with any public money nor do they get any tax breaks.
It is time we stopped giving out tax money to companies wanting to open a business in a particular community. When local and state governments give these unfair advantages to larger businesses it hurts everybody. First of all, because they do not pay personal property tax, their presence does not benefit the local schools. So the under-funding of education continues. If we would just collect the fair taxes on all of the business in the St. Louis area we would have no education shortages.
Secondly, as I stated earlier, the small business are forced to close because they cannot compete with larger business that don’t pay taxes, get free real estate from the government, and get their start up costs provided by the government.
I have heard some economists say the added tax revenues created by the jobs will pay for the tax breaks. That would be like if I wanted the government to give me $5million to build an addition to my house for the additional personal property taxes they would collect on the enhancement. Ludicrous!!
If the Cardinals owners want to build an extravagant Ball Park Village, then they should pay for it. Stop corporate welfare and stop handing out money to the rich!!
It was initially conceived this add on to the stadium would coast about $60 million dollars but recent developments reveals the actual cost to be more in the neighborhood of $600 million. So now the Cardinals management are crying poor and wanting the tax payers to pick up some of these costs.
They want the tax payers of St. Louis to pay the initial investment and then give them a tax break on the revenues earned. If the city of St. Louis complies, they would assume no ownership role in the business, nor would they get any revenue gaining privileges. This sounds like a bad investment for the tax payers.
Usually when a percentage of the startup costs are paid by an individual or entity, that individual or entity gets ownership in the business and shares in the revenues. Part of the American dream involves risk but I have heard Bill DeWitt will not even personally finance any of his business projects. He prefers to have others take that plunge for him while he collects the revenues without sharing in any of the risks.
What about the businesses that have been operating in the area for years? Why should we give an unfair advantage to the Cardinals owners to dominate this market? The businesses already operating in the area did not start with any public money nor do they get any tax breaks.
It is time we stopped giving out tax money to companies wanting to open a business in a particular community. When local and state governments give these unfair advantages to larger businesses it hurts everybody. First of all, because they do not pay personal property tax, their presence does not benefit the local schools. So the under-funding of education continues. If we would just collect the fair taxes on all of the business in the St. Louis area we would have no education shortages.
Secondly, as I stated earlier, the small business are forced to close because they cannot compete with larger business that don’t pay taxes, get free real estate from the government, and get their start up costs provided by the government.
I have heard some economists say the added tax revenues created by the jobs will pay for the tax breaks. That would be like if I wanted the government to give me $5million to build an addition to my house for the additional personal property taxes they would collect on the enhancement. Ludicrous!!
If the Cardinals owners want to build an extravagant Ball Park Village, then they should pay for it. Stop corporate welfare and stop handing out money to the rich!!
posted by DarthImmortal at 8:13 AM
6 Comments:
morning. sorry for my absence of late...
glad to see you got back safe from your travels.
thanks for the pics, they were fantastic.
dr.John is doing another one of his marathons and i'm trying my hand at it again.
hope all is well.
Amen, Brother! I say we send Dr. John over there to open up a can of whoop-ass on those self-serving politicians! Or maybe just let Mrs. Trumble loose there for a while and see how things go...
The San Diego ballpark was a fiasco too. But we sure love it...
Dr. John sent me.
Perhaps they should have done better with their initial calculations and projections as to the cost of such a project rather than thinking they can just fall back on the taxpayers. I think it's wrong to expect them to foot the bill and not have any say or ownership rights. Things like this make me mad. Mrs. Trumble, where are you when we need you and your shotgun? Guess I'll have to run back to Dr. John's and find her.
Going through a similar thing here in Savannah - although we don't have a cool major league baseball team like the Cardinals.
Stopping by via Dr. John. -Margie
I was going to run through in Dr. John's Marathon, and you made me stop and think. Big businesses get the favors because they grease the politcal wheels that run over the little guys. It is time for the little guy to get up and vote.
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