[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 30 (Tuesday, February 14, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E123-E124]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         INTRODUCTION OF THE NO TAX SUBSIDIES FOR STADIUMS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EARL BLUMENAUER

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 14, 2023

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, today I introduced the No Tax Subsidies 
for Stadiums Act. This commonsense legislation will close the tax 
loophole that allows a tax-exemption on municipal bonds used to finance 
professional sports stadiums.
  For more than a century, the federal government has supported state 
and local infrastructure projects by excluding the interest on 
municipal bonds from federal income taxes. Qualified projects eligible 
for a tax-exemption include roads, sewers and water systems, hospitals, 
schools, govenunental buildings, and other projects for the public 
good. However, a loophole in the tax code allows professional sports 
franchises to use public money to construct stadiums using taxexempt 
municipal bonds.
  Since 2000, dozens of professional sports stadiums have been 
constructed or rehabilitated under financing provided by federal tax-
exempt municipal bonds, costing taxpayers nearly $4 billion. While 
professional sports teams promise state and local governments that 
their stadiums will produce local economic development and job 
creation, there is no quantifiable evidence that they provide these 
benefits. Providing a federal subsidy for a professional sports stadium 
requires residents of a state without a professional team to subsidize 
a stadium in another part of the country, where they receive no benefit 
whatsoever. Public financing creates a race to the bottom where teams 
worth hundreds of millions, or billions, of dollars have all the 
leverage to exploit city budgets for their own gain.
  By disallowing a federal tax-exemption, hundreds of millions of 
dollars a year will be returned to American taxpayers or can be put 
toward making our communities more safe, healthy, and economically 
secure. I thank my friends Senators Lankford and Booker in their 
support for this legislation in the Senate and I look forward to 
working with my colleagues to enact this critical legislation.

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