Monday, January 28, 2008
Public Finance, OKC Style
There are lots of ways to pay for an arena, but Mayor Mick Cornett said city leaders thought the choice was obvious in Oklahoma City.Clever trick, to schedule the arrival of the Sonics right about when the sales tax would otherwise expire, don't you think? That fella Brad Humphreys is working for some pretty sharp cookies (inside joke -- see the comments here).
The Ford Center was built with money from the original MAPS sales tax.
It just made sense to continue the temporary 1-cent sales tax, which was already extended to pay for MAPS for Kids, Cornett said.
If voters approve the Ford Center tax, it will go into effect Jan. 1, 2009, the day the MAPS for Kids tax is set to expire.
"Our citizens seem to prefer a sales tax initiative to other concepts,” Cornett said. "This is following the model that was created by MAPS. MAPS is a proven entity to our voters.”
No other NBA arena was funded exclusively by sales tax money, according to the National Sports Law Institute of Marquette University Law School.
Mayor Cornett goes on to give a doozy of a tutorial on public finance, in case you want a snide chuckle or two. But the real story to me is the timing of this surreptitious little tax - very clever indeed. Thanks to Steve Winkler for the link.
Labels: NBA, stadium subsidies, tax revenues
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Minnesota Senate Tackles Scalping
This bill won't make it to King's list of silly bills: student Brian Rude notified me that the Minnesota senate has passed a bill to legalize scalping. A little blurb from the article:
Legalization "would probably hurt my business, but it's a stupid law and it should be changed," said Tom, a Westbrook, Minn., resident who has earned both a living and a criminal record in 10 years as a scalper.
...Repeal of the law may only increase the dominance of Internet sites such as eBay in brokering tickets, Tom said.
Reselling tickets is already legal in all but about a dozen states, Gerlach said, adding that he expects the prices that Minnesota fans pay middlemen for tickets would decline with legalization.
In neighboring Wisconsin, decriminalization has spawned a vibrant legal ticket brokerage industry that pays taxes instead of court fines, Gerlach said.
Legalization also directs tickets to those who value them the most. But what was the driving force for those who voted in favor of the bill: the efficiency of such a market or the potential for increased tax revenues?
Addendum: King has a great story.
My favorite is the purchase of a $75 seat cushion in front of Fenway, onto which two field box tickets were taped, because scalping in Massachusetts was illegal.
Labels: scalping, tax revenues, ticket prices
