Loophole in jock tax for $800M stadium

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

The Oregon Senate has passed Senate Bill 110, which would build a near-billion dollar baseball stadium by diverting baseball player income taxes, of both home team and visiting players, to be used to fund the stadium.  This scheme is why proponents say it will not cost taxpayers a dime.

But economist Joe Cortright notes in the Oregonian that this assumes that baseball players will not adjust to being taxed in Oregon. To minimize taxes we have baseball players creating contracts where they get paid most upon retirement.   This means they will be able to avoid paying any Oregon income tax when they play in Portland.

Cortright further claims the financing estimates are wildly out of proportion, “Based on the current median payroll, taxes on player salaries from a Portland team would generate roughly $12.75 million a year. In today’s dollars, the value of that revenue stream at 5% interest over 30 years is $196 million – a fraction of the up to $800 million in bonds that the Portland Diamond Project wants for construction of a $2 billion stadium. While proponents appear to be including other factors as well, it’s unclear how this will support up to $800 million unless they are betting on sustained high growth in player salaries – a speculative and risky assumption.”

Consider these recent Portland investment failures:

• Oregon taxpayers subsidized the recent 5-star hotel, Ritz-Carlton, which only lasted one year before facing bankruptcy.

• Oregon taxpayers subsidized the luxury Conference Center Hyatt hotel, which only last a few years before it flopped and was forced to sell off.

• Oregon taxpayers paid for a Blazer arena road extension to relieve traffic congestion. Nearly 10-years later the project has yet to be constructed and costs have exploded to nearly a billion dollars because liberals have tried to add a park and business area on top of the freeway by capping it.

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