Corporate Welfare Queens Laugh as Toady Scrambles to Give Them Handouts

D.C.'s Corrupt Mayor Wants to Give Away $440 Million While Schools Rot

Politicians continue to get caught in corporate welfare scandals. This time the corporate welfare queen is the millionaires who run major league baseball, seeking a gift of $440 million from Washington D.C., one of America's poorest cities and the only such city to have lots of taxation but no representation at all in Congress. Here are excerpts from a statement from the principled Statehood Green Party, followed by the famous open letter that makes it clear there is no rational basis for the huge giveaway. Will Mayor Williams resign in disgrace? Don't count on it.

Candidates and members of the D.C. Statehood Green Party are urging D.C. Council to reject Mayor Anthony Williams' plan to provide up to $500 million in public financing for a new stadium in Washington, D.C.

"We're making this a campaign issue -- either you're for the people of D.C., or you're for the Mayor and some baseball multimillionaires who want to feed at the public trough," said Jay Marx, Statehood Green candidate for the Ward 2 seat on Council, which is currently occupied by Jack Evans, a booster of the Mayor's plan. "Statehood Greens are standing firm with the 'No D.C. Taxes for Baseball' coalition and thousands of other citizens, and we're demanding that councilmembers vote no."

Statehood Greens will join other opponents of corporate welfare for the stadium in a 9:30 a.m. rally on Thursday, October 28, 2004, outside the Wilson Building (City Hall), 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and then gather at the site of the proposed stadium site, M Street at South Capitol Street SE, at 11:00 a.m.

After the rally, Statehood Green candidates and Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb will hold a press conference in front of the Wilson Building. On the same day, Mr. Marx and other Statehood Green Party members will testify at the Council committee hearing on the stadium financing plan.

"Mayor Williams can find $500 million for a stadium, but he can't find enough money to repair our crumbling schools, provide school sports equipment and other supplies, restore eliminated teaching positions, or keep libraries open" said Michele Tingling-Clemmons, Statehood Green candidate for Council (Ward 7). "In wanting to soak D.C. taxpayers for the stadium, Mayor Williams is apparently keeping a promise made long ago to big real estate, developers, and other corporate interests."

In 2000, Mayor Williams openly courted Republican politicians during the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia to win support for D.C. baseball. "The luncheon that Mayor Williams hosted for Republicans on August 1, 2000 revealed the real political agenda of D.C.'s leading Democratic politicians," added Adam Eidinger, Statehood Green candidate for D.C. 'Shadow' Representative. "In 2004, when he made D.C. look desperate for baseball, the Mayor enthusiastically gave away the farm in his deal with Major League Baseball, not just for the benefit of baseball owners but for all his big business cronies who'll make a killing."

Statehood Greens listed several reasons for D.C. Council to oppose Mayor Williams' plan:

• The plan makes a stadium the District's top economic priority, diverting up to $500 million that is sorely needed for schools, libraries, public transportation (especially the cost of Metro rides), affordable housing, homeless shelters, revitalization of neighborhoods, Medicaid coverage, and restoration of a publicly funded full-service hospital. A stadium surtax on the D.C.'s largest businesses, as the mayor proposes, would prevent the city from using the same sources of tax money for these more pressing needs.

• The Mayor's offer for the city to build the stadium, charge only a nominal lease to the new team, and give away 100% of the revenue from naming rights would be an enormous taxpayer-funded handout to wealthy Major League Baseball owners: If D.C. pays for the stadium with taxpayer money, the new team owners can offer high-price bids for the Expos to Major League Baseball, rather than financing the stadium themselves. Major League Baseball paid $120 million for the Expos just two years ago, and now wish to sell it to the new D.C. owners for $300 million or more.

• The Mayor's plan will not meet the District's economic needs -- especially the needs of impoverished areas in Southeast D.C. Studies of the economic impact of stadiums consistently find that they don't create jobs or boost incomes, don't encourage development in surrounding neighborhoods, and would mostly generate part-time, low-wage jobs with no benefits. More information: http://www.fieldofschemes.com

• If the Mayor's plan is enacted, D.C. residents will continue to pay for the stadium, through raised prices and layoffs because of the proposed tax on D.C. businesses (especially small, locally owned companies), through necessary expenditures for infrastructure and services for the stadium, and through health problems resulting from traffic congestion and pollution near the stadium, especially further damage to the heavily contaminated and neglected Anacostia River.

• The stadium plan is an abuse of eminent domain, since it involves the seizure of private property (numerous business sites) not for public benefit, but to transfer to another private entity (Major League Baseball owners). "It is an attempt that lost its questionable legal justification in late July, when the Michigan Supreme Court overturned its precedent-setting decision in 1981 that allowed Detroit to condemn the neighborhood of Poletown in order to make way for a General Motors factory."

For more information, see The D.C. Statehood Green Party http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org

No D.C. Taxes for Baseball coalition http://www.nodctaxesforbaseball.org

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The Famous Open Letter to Mayor Anthony Williams and the DC City Council from 90 Economists on the Likely Impact of a Taxpayer-Financed Baseball Stadium in the District of Columbia

Dear Mayor Williams and DC Council Members: A vast body of economic research on the impact of baseball stadiums suggests that the proposed $440 million baseball stadium in the District of Columbia will not generate notable economic or fiscal benefits for the city.  Most studies find that new sports stadiums do not increase employment or incomes and sometimes have a modest negative effect on local economies.  The reason appears to be that sports stadiums do not increase overall entertainment spending but merely shift it from other entertainment venues to the stadium. Research also suggests that a baseball stadium alone will not revitalize the Anacostia waterfront.  Because sports stadiums are not used most of the year, they do not stimulate much development outside the stadium.  Most modern stadiums include restaurant and other entertainment offerings, limiting the money that goes to neighboring businesses. A new stadium cannot be expected to generate a net increase in economic activity in the Washington metropolitan area, but it may shift some entertainment spending from the Maryland and Virginia suburbs into the District.  Nevertheless, the economic benefits to the District are not likely to outweigh the large stadium subsidy proposed by the District.  At least 80 percent of the costs of the $440 million stadium are expected to be supported with public funds. In short, it is dubious to justify the use of public funds to subsidize construction of a DC baseball stadium on economic development grounds. Sincerely, Henry J. Aaron Brookings Institution Geoffrey Andron Austin Community College Robert A. Baade Lake Forest College Charles W. Baird California State University - Hayward Doug Bandow Cato Institute Andy H. Barnett Auburn University John H. Beck Gonzaga University M. Douglas Berg Sam Houston State University David J. Berri California State University - Bakersfield John Berthoud George Washington University Elizabeth C. Bogan Princeton University Samuel Bostaph University of Dallas Scott Bradford Brigham Young University John B. Bryant Rice University Dennis Coates University of Maryland - Baltimore County John P. Cochran Metropolitan State College of Denver Christian Crowley George Washington University Otto A. Davis Carnegie Mellon University Gregory J. Delemeester Marietta College Craig Depken University of Texas - Arlington John Dobra University of Nevada Robert M. Dunn Jr. George Washington University Frank Falero California State University Arthur Fleisher III Metropolitan State College Micah Frankel California State University - Hayward Kenneth R. French Dartmouth University - Tuck School of Business Dennis E. Gale Rutgers University John M. Gandar University of North Carolina - Charlotte David Garthoff The University of Akron David E.R. Gay University of Arkansas Otis Gilley Louisiana Tech University David Gold New School University Peter Gordon University of Southern California Robert Hahn AEI-Brookings Joint Center Dennis Halcoussis California State University - Northridge Pat Hendershott University of Aberdeen - Scotland David R. Henderson Hoover Institute Brad Humphreys University of Illinois - Champaign-Urbana F. Jerry Ingram The University of Lousiana-Monroe Bruce Johnson Centre College David L. Kaserman Auburn University Raymond J. Keating Small Business Survival Committee David Laband Auburn University Thomas M. Lenard The Progress & Freedom Foundation Stan Liebowitz University of Texas - Dallas R. Ashley Lyman University of Idaho Doug MacKenzie Ramapo College of New Jersey Michael L. Marlow California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo Victor Matheson College of the Holy Cross Fred S. McChesney Northwestern University Carlisle Moody College of William & Mary Richard F. Muth Emory University Roger Noll Stanford University James B. O'Neill University of Delaware Jeffrey Owen Indiana State University Allen Parkman University of New Mexico William S. Peirce Case Western Reserve University Philip Porter University of South Florida Barry W. Poulson University of Colorado Richard W. Rahn Discovery Institute W. Robert Reed University of Oklahoma Jay R. Ritter University of Florida Paul H. Rubin Emory University Raymond Sauer Clemson University Martin Schmidt College of William & Mary Michael A. Schuyler Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation Carlos Seiglie Rutgers University Rich Shields Keller Graduate School of Management Stephen Shmanske California State University - Hayward William F. Shughart II University of Mississippi John J. Siegfried Vanderbilt University Neil T. Skaggs Illinois State University James F. Smith University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill Mark Steckbeck Hillsdale College E. Frank Stephenson Berry College Courtenay C. Stone Ball State University Alexander Tabarrok George Mason University John Tatom DePaul University Henry Townsend (retired) Leo Troy Rutgers University - Newark Richard K. Vedder Ohio University Scott Wallsten American Enterprise Institute John T. Wenders University of Idaho Robert Whaples Wake Forest University Walter E. Williams George Mason University Dennise P. Wilson University of Texas - Arlington Gary Wolfram Hillsdale College Kate Zhou University of Hawaii Andrew Zimbalist Smith College Benjamin Zycher Pacific Research Institute

Institutions are listed for informational purposes only.

Also see the WWW's most-visited site on Corporate Welfare: The Corporate Welfare Shame Site The Progress Report's award for Best Economic Justice Book of 1998 went to Field of Schemes, the top exposé of all corporate welfare stadium projects

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