Grassroots Organization Calls For Elimination of Stadium Funding in Lee’s Budget Amendment
Photo Credit: Bill Lee / Twitter
Published April 16, 2021
KNOXVILLE, TN – Following reports that Governor Bill Lee’s budget amendment includes a $13.5 Million dollar grant for a minor league stadium Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee (AFP-TN) urged legislators to eliminate politically-driven handouts.
AFP-TN State Director Tori Venable stated, “Governor Lee wisely referred to the influx of cash our state is set to receive as economic meth. Money that encourages growing government, cronyism, and fueling a spending addiction with one-time funds will ultimately lead to less economic growth. And yet, many officials, well-intentioned as they may be, are lining up to support a $13.5 million dollar give-away for a stadium that should be fully funded by the individuals that will own it, not the taxpayers.”
Since 1995, Tennessee has awarded a total of 9,264 subsidies costing almost $4.3 billion, all under the guise of “economic development”.
Most recently, the state and the city of Nashville offered a combined $100 million worth of incentives to Amazon for creation of a new logistics hub.
In 2017, the Beacon Center of Tennessee, in its annual Pork Report, highlighted the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development for its dubious Industrial Machinery Tax Credit program, which spent $67 million in three years and resulted in just 55 jobs. That’s $1.2 million per job.
According to research by the Mercatus Center, Tennessee could reduce its corporate income tax rate by 13 percent, and its sales taxes by two percent if it eliminated all of its corporate welfare incentives, saving taxpayers billions each year.
We need better schools, better teachers, stop the killing of babies, get rid of planned parenthood, give more money to our police, not a new baseball stadium.
This kind of thing must stop. Teams from any sport and at all levels need to fund their own stadiums. These stadiums are money making ventures for the team owners who so often get them for free. If I decide to open a shooting range, and use the excuse that I’m doing so “for a shooting team to compete” do I get taxpayer dollars for doing so?! If your answer is yes then you’re just plain wrong.
I firmly agree that teams from any sport and at all levels need to fund their own stadiums!
We need to quite giving away the farm to bring people to this state who do not support our same Christian and patriotic values. We are paying businesses to move here that do not hire our people and elect leftist politicians like the ones they fled from the their liberal blue states. They do hire our people for anything but warehouse jobs. We, the property owners are paying for the infrastructure to support them in huge property tax increases. We are financing professional and minor league ball parks and stadiums so over-paid superstar players and kneel while we play our national anthem. And all we get from this is a slap in the face from the government that we own and a bill to pay for the privilege for allowing “leftugees” bring their politics and their socialist baggage with them from the east and west coasts! If we do not stop this now, we will be another Georgia in a NY City minute!
As a tax paying Tennessean, I don’t support more corporate welfare, especially to sports teams. Tennessee politicians need to stop enticing liberal business owners into our state. These corporations bring their people to run it, leaving menial, low wage jobs for residents. At the same time they will support liberal candidates and bring in liberal ideology with them. Republicans will be voted out by this changed demographic and the citizens of Tennessee will pay the price.