September 25, 2017

Bills Blocking Taxpayer Funding Of Sports Arenas Could Gain Steam In Midst Of Anthem Protests

Senators proposed a bill this summer to prevent federal taxpayer funding from going towards the construction of professional sports arenas, and after more players began supporting the protest of the national anthem before games, the legislation may begin to pick up steam.

A companion measure to the legislation was already proposed in the House back in March by Oklahoma Republican Rep. Steve Russell.

Last June, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Corey Booker and Republican Oklahoma Sen. Jim Lankford put forth a bill that would ban professional sports teams from using municipal bonds in relation to federal funding to build their sports arenas.

“Professional sports teams generate billions of dollars in revenue,” Booker said in a statement. “There’s no reason why we should give these multimillion-dollar businesses a federal tax break to build new stadiums. It’s not fair to finance these expensive projects on the backs of taxpayers, especially when wealthy teams end up reaping most of the benefits.”

The Oklahoma Republican senator agreed, saying, “The federal government is responsible for a lot of important functions, but financing sports stadiums for multi-million – sometimes billion – dollar franchises is definitely not one of them.”

Read the entire article

No comments:

Post a Comment