Best line I've read today

"If you want to inject money into the local economy, it would be better to drop it from a helicopter than invest in a new ballpark.

That's U of Chicago economist as quoted in a pretty good Sacramento Bee opinion piece. [Annoying free registration required.]

I know it's a soapbox issue and I know I care WAY more about this than most folks, but let me say it again -- sports stadiums almost never drive economic growth the way proponents claim. I love sports more than the average person, but I cannot get behind these proposals. If they really "paid off" as claimed, there'd be no shortage of private financing for these monstrosities. I know, I know; all that is old hat.

It turns out, though, the proposed Sacramento deal is even more insane than normal. Some of the particulars, ... Well I started to list the particulars, but that got tedious. Basically, Sacramento will use sales tax revenue (the most regressive of taxes) to fund almost 90% of the stadium, the city/county will be responsible for the hidden costs and overruns, the city/county will be liable for any "toxic" contamination from the proposed arena site (it's an old rail yard, I'm sure there aren't any heavy metals or anything there), the team owners will be exempt from approx. $6 million of annual property taxes they'd pay if they owned the arena, and it appears all revenue -- from ticket sales, to naming rights, to concessions and parking -- will go to team ownership.

The opinion piece doesn't cite specific numbers and sources (so I'm just having to accept the claims), but I'm sure there's some annual "rent" the team will pay the city/county. Still, if this piece is even close to accurate I'm not at all surprised by the claim that, "Economists who study publicly funded sports facilities say that this is one of the worst deals ever."

Ooh, the piece also closes with an excellent illustration of opportunity cost:

Sacramento County has higher priorities than subsidizing billionaires: flood control, police, firefighters, schools and health care, to name a few.

The most surprising thing about the piece, though? It was penned by a local politician who is voting NO on the arena proposal! I didn't think such elected officials existed. I thought pols had no defenses against the "pie in the sky" claims of such projects. I wonder if Mr. Jones would like to move to Alabama?