Some of the city officials who
have been most shameless in their spending on stadiums are now groveling to
attract Amazon, writes TheNation.com columnist Dave Zirin.
November 30, 2017
Comment: Dave Zirin
November 30, 2017
THE TERRIFIC podcast Citations
Needed, hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson, call it
"lotteryism"--the grotesque process where local and state governments
bid for Fortune 500 companies by offering billions of dollars in tax breaks in
the hopes that they will relocate to their cities. The most high-profile
example of this right now is, of course, Amazon. Politicians across the country
are offering absurd packages to attract the new "Amazon HQ2"
headquarters. These enticements will gut services for those who depend on
public schools, hospitals, public transportation and basic infrastructure. This
is not to say that Amazon won't bring jobs to these cities. It is making
promises of thousands of permanent hires. But the pound of flesh being offered
for these jobs is frightening.
Chicago has said Amazon could
keep local income taxes levied on the company's employees, a
total estimated at $1.32 billion, according to the Seattle publication The
Stranger. New Jersey has offered a
staggering $7 billion in tax breaks. Boston has offered to have city
employees be privatized workers when doing work under the auspices of Jeff
Bezos' empire: his own army of the underclass. Southern California is offering
$100 million in free land. Fresno
is offering to "place 85 percent of every tax dollar generated by
Amazon into a so-called 'Amazon Community Fund.'"
This would give Amazon control
over where our taxes flow, which undoubtedly would be in the direction of its
own well-compensated employees--think parks, bike lanes, condo development--creating
a new model of gentrification, directly subsidized by traffic tickets, parking
meters and regressive taxation of the poor.
Fresno's economic development
director Larry Westerlund told
the Los Angeles Times, "Rather than the money disappearing into a
civic black hole, Amazon would have a say on where it will go. Not for the fire
department on the fringe of town, but to enhance their own investment in
Fresno." Sure would suck to have your home on fire if you live on the
"fringe of town."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
THIS IS little more than
corporate theft, in collusion with often Democratic Party-led governments. And
publicly funded sports stadium scams and Olympic bidding wars laid the
groundwork for it. They have normalized the idea that our tax dollars exist to
fund the projects of the wealthy, with benefits trickling down in ways that
only produce more thirst.
Chris Heller wrote
a terrifically detailed report for the Pacific Standard about stadium
funding in which he estimated, "Over the past 15 years, more than $12
billion in public money has been spent on privately owned stadiums. Between
1991 and 2010, 101
new stadiums were opened across the country; nearly all those projects were
funded by taxpayers."
As Neil DeMause, author of Field
of Schemes said to me, "More recent corporate leaders have no doubt looked
to the billions of dollars lavished on sports teams and decided to up their
ante."
You can see this in the cities
that have offered the most gobsmacking giveaways to Amazon. Chicago is
still paying off renovations to the White Sox Cellular Field, more than 25
years after it opened, as well as the Chicago Bears' home of Soldier Field.
According to the Chicago Tribune, "Nearly $430 million in debt related to
renovations at the ballpark and a major overhaul of Soldier Field, including
$36 million in payments owed this year."
Then there is Southern
California, where San Diego voters rejected pouring over a billion dollars into
a new NFL stadium for the Chargers. Los Angeles then took the team and is
paying $60 million to pay for roads and "infrastructure" for a
new facility that was supposed to be privately funded. Los Angeles has also
pledged $5.3 billion to host the 2028 Olympics, a number, to judge by past
Olympics, that will balloon. It is doing so despite having the
highest number of chronically homeless people in the U.S. and, according to
the U.S. Census, more people living in poverty than any other major U.S. city.
It is also telling that Sacramento, the state capital, is where $272
million is being paid in taxes for the NBA Sacramento Kings' new facility.
If the Kings leave before the 35-year lease is up, that debt will still need to
be paid, just as the people of Oakland will be paying for the Raiders' stadium
for years after the team moves to Las Vegas.
Then there is Boston, which
tried to ram through its own multibillion-dollar bid for the Olympic Games.
Even though its bid was beaten back by activists, the heavy-handed efforts by
politicians to sell this to the public has normalized the playing field upon
which cities compete against one another. They don't compete to see who has the
lowest poverty rate or the fewest people behind bars. They compete for businesses
and the affection of 21st-century plutocrats, who promise prosperity yet
deliver it only for themselves, newly arriving executives, and whatever
politicians might be greased in the process. Our love of sports laid the
groundwork for the madness of "lotteryism." We're the frog in the
slowly boiling water. And they are not content merely to cook us. We're also
their dinner.
First published at TheNation.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment