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(Alexandria, VA) – DC City Council members who will vote Tuesday on whether to approve the Mayor’s plan for a publicly-subsidized baseball stadium in Anacostia should remember this year’s earlier “commuter tax” court controversy. According to a new study from the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF), the stadium proposal would worsen taxes in DC to fund a project that will mostly serve residents of Maryland and Virginia (80 percent of the team’s fans are expected to come from those two states).

“The pending deal to lure baseball to the nation’s capital, negotiated by DC Mayor Williams, would raise taxes on DC businesses largely to the benefit of residents of surrounding jurisdictions that DC lawmakers claimed their constituents were subsidizing a mere nine months ago,” said NTUF Director of Government Affairs and study author Paul Gessing. “Backers maintain that this stream of outsiders will give a boost to the area surrounding the new stadium, but the lack of economic activity around the existing RFK stadium provides a vivid illustration of the tenuous nature of stadium-induced economic activity.”

The study notes that the $505 million stadium proposal – excluding the $25 million to pay for renovations to RFK stadium – will be the priciest open-air baseball facility ever, costing more than either Toronto’s SkyDome or Houston’s Minute Maid Park, both of which sport expensive retractable roofs that enhance their usefulness as event venues.

Furthermore, the District of Columbia is offering subsidies higher than those of any other stadium project, amounting to more than the total cost of most stadium ventures built since 2000. Even Council Chairwoman Cropp’s recent proposal, which would reduce costs up to 20 percent by building the new stadium on the RFK site, includes nearly $323 million in taxpayer subsidies.

“The question is: what exactly is Washington spending all its money on?” Gessing said. “For the price he is asking DC taxpayers to pay, Mayor Williams is clearly not just planning to build a stadium. Rather, he is offering baseball a gilded palace costing far more than the newest and best stadiums throughout the League.”

Gessing noted that the case for taxpayer-financed baseball looks “even more ridiculous in light of the glaring fiscal management issues that can be found through the District,” already the most hostile tax climate for doing business in the nation. As a direct result of this toxic economic environment, DC’s unemployment rate has soared to 7.9 percent (the nation’s highest and over twice Virginia’s 3.2 percent rate).

“Clearly the last thing DC businesses need is even higher taxes, which in turn will only be passed along to DC residents in the form of higher prices, lower wages, and fewer new jobs,” Gessing concluded. “It is now up to DC’s City Council to do their best for DC taxpayers, by exploring alternatives to ensure that baseball pays to play.”

NTUF is the research and educational arm of the 350,000-member National Taxpayers Union. Note: NTUF Issue Brief 148, Taxpayer-Financed Baseball in Our Nation’s Capital: A Steal for Baseball, Reverse Commuter Tax for DC, and Gessing’s earlier study, NTUF Policy Paper 133, Ballpark Boondoggle, are available online at www.ntu.org.

Related Links:

• Click Here for NTUF Issue Brief 148

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