Diamondbacks. And the West Tennessee city’s taxpayers have been getting played. Intrepid reporting by the Jackson Sun earlier this year revealed that for every $50 collected by the city in taxes, $1 went to the team. The city tossed money to the team in four different ways:
- Utility and maintenance payments for the Generals’ stadium, totaling over $700,000 last year alone.
- Capital improvements at the ballpark, which have ranged from a low of $12,000 last year all the way up to $365,000 in 2011.
- Almost $400,000 last year on marketing and advertising for the team, which was actually hidden in the city’s budget and not reported to taxpayers.
- Servicing on the $6.5 million loan the city took out to build the stadium, which the Sun estimates to cost about $213,500 a year.
Talk about getting caught stealing.
Solution: Sports teams and their millionaire and billionaire owners should build and pay for their own stadiums.
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