AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Economist Dr. Vance Ginn and Center for Local Governance Director James Quintero issued the following statements on the Arlington City Council’s decision last night to call an election on whether to redirect taxes to help publicly finance the construction of a new $1 billion sports stadium for the Texas Rangers. If approved by voters, the city will commit as much as $500 million to the completion of the project using revenues generated by a host of taxes and fees, including a half-cent sales tax, a 5 percent car rental tax, and a 2 percent hotel occupancy tax.
“When local governments support sports stadiums, they make decisions that benefit only a select few,” said Dr. Ginn. “The proposed Texas Rangers ballpark in Arlington is a good example of this as it would directly cost taxpayers $500 million and indirectly much more because those dollars could have been allocated more efficiently in the private sector. If the Rangers’ management decides to kill the project after voters turn this down in November, then they didn’t need to build it in the first place.”
“Providing public funds for professional sports stadiums is difficult, if not impossible, to justify in the face of so much city debt and growing pension problems,” said Quintero. “In 2015, the city of Arlington’s debts totaled more than $1.1 billion while its net pension liabilities exceeded $166 million, up from $104 million in the previous year.”
Vance Ginn, Ph.D., is an economist in the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
James Quintero is director of the Center for Local Governance at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.