Ruby Red Tennessee Puts Locals On The Hook For Lavish NFL Stadium

While the national pols go through their elaborate dance over the debt ceiling, let's check in on a group of local politicians who, just like their congressional cousins, can't help themselves when it comes to putting taxpayers on the hook for corporate welfare.

In this case, it's that oldest and among the costliest of local money pits, NFL stadiums. Until very recently, the dubious distinction for “biggest taxpayer subsidy to an NFL team” was the $850 million being gifted to help build a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills.

While it's tempting to sit back and laugh as New York politicians incinerate a huge pile of cash in support of a team whose billionaire owner is perfectly capable of funding his own football Xanadu, that would be misplaced.

Because Nashville, Tennessee pols have raised the bar for outlandish stadium profligacy:

The Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County voted in the wee hours on Wednesday morning to spend $1.26 billion in taxpayer money on a new government-owned stadium. That figure not only puts locals on the hook for more than half of the stadium's estimated $2.1 billion cost, but it also sets a new record for the largest stadium subsidy in U.S. history.

Largest by a country mile, that is. Naturally, the local pols assure everyone that it's outsiders, tourists and that guy behind the tree who will pay for the higher taxes and fees that will be used to fund this new stadium.

But not every visitor to every event will have to pay:

…several special events are exempt from the new 3-percent ticket fee: Country Music Association events, Academy of Country Music events, the Grammy Awards, and World Wrestling Entertainment events.

That kind of gives the whole game away, doesn't it? Taxpayers aren't just subsidizing a stadium; they are effectively subsidizing attendees of those other events.

But trying to make sense of the web of favors, carve-outs, giveaways, exceptions and exceptions that are standard in the taxpayer subsidy racket is a fool's errand. There is no sense to it – fiscally or morally.

And with the Nashville stadium deal, it looks like the price tag for all fiscal recklessness and favoritism is going up.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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