The White House X account recently issued a tweet listing “Eliminating special tax breaks for billionaire sports team owners” as one of the president’s tax priorities.
That one item is substantial. According to a paper in the December 2024 issue of the National Tax Journal, the total revenue loss to the federal government was $4.3 billion due to the 57 stadia built since 2000 that have benefitted from subsidies.
If that tax break is eliminated, team owners will demand that states make up the difference.
We know that these subsidies fail to generate a return on investment for taxpayers. They don’t drive economic development and their economic impacts are overstated. Maybe they make a metro area feel good about itself—but even then the benefits are too small to justify the costs.
Missouri has a lot on its plate right now with efforts to cut spending and income taxes so that Missouri is a more attractive place to live and work. More and greater handouts to billionaires should not be a priority.
