We’re not the only ones skeptical about the plan to bring the Montreal Expos to Portland by diverting income taxes paid by players. Oregon State Legislative Revenue Office analyst Dick Yates projects that the tax revenues from the bill would be only $5 million a year, not nearly enough to pay off the state’s $150 million in stadium bonds, while Oregon economist Joe Cortright points out that player income taxes are hardly “new” revenue, since they’d likely come at the expense of reduced consumer spending in other areas. Meanwhile, Florida movie mogul Craig Marquardo, who claimed he’d build a Portland stadium with his own money, turns out to have claimed a bunch of other things of dubious veracity: like that he played minor-league baseball, was wounded in the Gulf War, and sang backup for Sting.
