Hope you weren’t excited by the prospect of an interstate pact not to engage in a public bidding war for the Washington NFL team, because that’s not happening now:
A House of Delegates panel quickly shot down two bills Wednesday that would have barred state subsidies for a new Washington Redskins stadium in Virginia and blocked localities from spending public money on professional sports facilities.
A House budget subcommittee voted 7-0 to lay the bills on the table, effectively killing them for the year…
The subcommittee voted down the bill with no discussion.
This is par for the course, and the main reason why most experts predict the Economic War Among the States won’t be ended by mutual ceasefire: It’s way too tempting for one side or the other to try to cheat and lure all the businesses to their side of the state line. Federal legislation is the best way to stop bidding wars for sports franchises and businesses of all kinds — and there’s no benefit to the U.S. as a whole when one municipality steals a business from another, obviously — but that didn’t get far when it was proposed, either.
Meanwhile, the Virginia house of delegates also shot down another bill by the same delegate, Republican Michael Webert, that would have barred all stadium subsidies starting in 2019, on the grounds that, as Republican delegate Riley Ingram put it, “It’s a business decision. And this would bar localities from making that decision.” I guess that’s the subsidy equivalent of “They knew the risks when they chose to play football”?
I can see the state saying no state subsidies. But if a locality wants to spend money on dumb things under Home rule principles maybe they should be allowed to so long as there is no bail out by the state required (and that is the run I guess).
Home Rule in Virginia is pretty weak. Part of Synder’s problem with trying to get large subsidies out of NOVA, is that it has to go through the state legislature in some capacity and there is nothing the Roanoke, Hampton Roads and RVA representatives like to do more than telling NOVA to go to hell.
It’s stronger in Maryland so he some more room to maneuver there, and DC depends on who ever controls Congress and the issue is.
As I lived in Arlington for 6 years, I guess I should have known that. But that is a good point.
If I was in charge I’d just tax the subsidies for stadiums, business development, etc at 100%. Sure you want to a local state/city/county to give you millions or billions, here is a tax bill for the same amount. It would effectively end the who rigamarole right there because it would be a net-0 for anyone asking.
There are likely some procedural issues on defining what is a subsidy, and who it goes to, but it would end trying to steal businesses from other localities, and if one really, really wanted to do so the everyone else in the country would benefit at their expense.
Also with the federal government in charge it solves the prisoner problem pretty well.
“It’s a business decision. And this would bar localities from making that decision.” We know. That’s what we’re trying to do, you dope.
No chance this gets built in Virginia, we’re just bidding to drive the price up for MD and DC.