[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 4, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H2686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     NO TAX SUBSIDIES FOR STADIUMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Russell) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, it is official: the Oakland Raiders are 
moving to Las Vegas. Beginning in 2020, they will play in a shiny, new 
65,000-seat stadium outfitted with a retractable roof that is expected 
to cost $1.9 billion.
  If you are an American taxpayer, you will help pay for it, even if 
you live nowhere near Nevada. About $750 million for the project will 
be financed through municipal bonds, which are tax exempt. The Federal 
tax break is projected to amount to some $120 million, according to a 
study by the Brookings Institution.
  Congress and President Trump should take the Raiders' bad example as 
an impetus for reform. As the President considers a $1 trillion plan to 
restore America's aging roads, rail, bridges, waterways, and airports, 
lawmakers should ask why so many stadiums are following the Las Vegas 
model, fleeing one bad economic State and using your tax dollars to go 
to another.
  The alternative is what we did in Oklahoma City in 1993. Our 
residents passed a temporary 1 percent increase in sales tax to fund, 
without incurring a debt, a building spree called the Metropolitan Area 
Projects, or MAPS. Over 5 years, the plan raised $350 million for nine 
projects, including a stadium now called the Chesapeake Energy Arena, 
home to NBA basketball's Oklahoma City Thunder. This pay-as-you-go 
approach may sound unremarkable, but it is nothing short of 
exceptional.
  Most professional sports stadiums these days are financed with 
municipal bonds, something that they were never intended to be used 
for. But this kind of debt wasn't intended for lavish football stadiums 
or basketball arenas. Municipal bonds were supposed to give communities 
a way to build public projects--hospitals, schools, roads--without 
having to pay Federal taxes on the debt's interest. The point was to 
ease the financial burden on cities and States that invest in expensive 
but essential infrastructure.
  Over the past 30 years, however, stadium financiers have exploited a 
loophole in the Tax Code to qualify professional sports arenas for 
municipal bonds. Because Federal taxes aren't incurred on the interest 
of this debt, stadiums essentially receive a multimillion-dollar 
subsidy from Washington.
  Last year, a Brookings study examined 45 stadiums built or seriously 
renovated since 2000; 36 were funded at least in part with municipal 
bonds, resulting in forgone Federal tax revenue of $3.7 billion. That 
is enough money to employ 88,000 military staff sergeants or give each 
State a $74 million block grant, or it could help reduce the national 
debt.
  To solve this problem, I have introduced, along with my Democratic 
colleague, Earl Blumenauer from Oregon, H.R. 811. This bipartisan No 
Tax Subsidies for Stadiums Act would prohibit arena financiers from 
using municipal bonds. Instead of building enormous, lavish sports 
facilities on the backs of unsuspecting taxpayers across the Nation, 
financiers should ask communities to buy into their vision. If 
residents want a stadium to be built, fine. They should be willing to 
pay for it like we did in Oklahoma City; or sports franchises and 
leagues always have the option to finance construction like most 
businesses do, privately.
  Funding an upgrade to America's core infrastructure will be a 
challenge. It shouldn't require Congress to use budget gimmicks or run 
up the national debt.
  Closing loopholes, such as requiring stadium financiers to pay 
Federal taxes on bond interest that was intended to improve our 
decaying infrastructure, would ensure taxpayers get the best return on 
their dollars to improve public infrastructure that all Americans use.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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