Dear Editor:
Understandably, Indiana residents love their Colts. But praising a tax increase plan to subsidize a wealthy football team’s stadium at the expense of struggling taxpayers is appalling. Nearly all economists agree that subsidizing stadiums is bad public policy.
Now legislators are high-fiving one another for successfully raising taxes on everything from food to hotel rooms. Taxpayers are footing the bill to maintain the stadium. They were originally told that would cost roughly $10 million per year … now the expense is looking like $27.7 million for 2009 alone.
Is this really something legislators should be happy about? I guess they really do believe you can’t put a price on winning … when the price is being paid with taxpayers’ money.
John Nothdurft ([email protected]) is the budget and tax legislative specialist for The Heartland Institute.
John Nothdurft joined the staff of The Heartland Institute in May 2008 and left in January of 2019.
