The February 2010 issue of Budget & Tax News opens with a report on sports stadiums in Detroit: the sale of the Pontiac Silverdome for just $583,000, and the potential new construction by Kalamazoo County of a 6,800-seat facility 6,800-seat at an estimated cost of $81.2 million.
Also in this issue:
- Pittsburgh’s mayor wants to tax college and university tuitions, but schools and students are fighting back and have support from some lawmakers.
- Just four years ago, state and local officials in North Carolina gave computer maker Dell Inc. some $300 million in taxpayer-backed incentives to build an assembly plant in the state. Now the company is shuttering the facility and moving additional jobs out of state.
- The U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 allowed New London, Connecticut’s use of eminent domain to destroy a residential neighborhood and give the property to pharmaceutical maker Pfizer to build a new real estate development adjacent to its research facility. Now the plan is off and Pfizer is moving out of New London, taking nearly 1,500 jobs with it.
- The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority was supposed to go out of business in 1988, according to the enabling law, eliminating tolls on the roadway. Twenty-one years later tolls are still being collected and have risen several times.
- Municipalities considering new guiding principles and best practices in hopes of balancing the books while providing core services can look to Glenview, Illinois, as a model. Village officials achieved cost-saving and quality-driven results by following certain principles and best practices.
