One giant sports subsidy proposal leaves, one enters: Two Arizona Republican legislators and a spokesperson for Gov. Katie Hobbs all say that Diamondbacks representatives have approached them about kicking back city, state, and county sales tax receipts from Chase Field to pay for future renovations of the stadium. And state representative Justin Wilmeth says that’s just fine by him, because:
“I have no problem with that. If you don’t want to go to a DBacks game, then you’re not going to pay for it.”
Nooooooooo. No, no, no, no, no. That is not how taxes work at all. Fans at Diamondbacks games will be charged exactly the same amount in taxes whether local government hands it over to D-Backs owner Ken Kendrick or keeps it to spend on things that the 7,431,343 Arizonas not named Ken Kendrick need; the only difference is in where the money goes. Pretending that adding up how much money is collected in sales taxes and writing a check for that amount is “fans paying for the stadium” is pure Casino Nightism, and should be responded to by taxpayers hastily gathering up their money and glaring at Felix in horror.
As for how much money Kendrick wants, nobody’s saying:
It was unclear what portion of the 5.6% state sales tax was proposed to be placed in a fund for the team, how much money was projected to be collected, or how long the redevelopment fund would be active.
We can calculate, or at least guesstimate, the most that could be provided to Kendrick this way, though. The combined Phoenix sales tax rate is 8.6%. The Diamondbacks have an estimated $314 million a year in revenue; Forbes no longer breaks that out by type of revenue, but back when Financial World did, venue revenues were typically about 10-20% of overall revenues. That means kicking back sales tax receipts from sales of stuff at D-Backs games could provide $30-60 million a year in funding, enough to easily pay off, say, a $500 million renovation. [CORRECTION: Aaaugh, I skipped a step in the math! Taking 10-20% of $314 million a year in revenue and applying the 8.6% tax rate is, as reader Brad correctly points out below, a total of $2.7 million to $5.6 million a year, which is only enough to pay off about $40 million to $80 million in renovation costs. I sincerely regret the error.]
None of this has gotten as far as legislation yet, and we also still don’t know if D-Backs execs are working on other public funding sources as well. It looks like Kendrick and Co. are trying to take advantage of Arizona’s new super-conservative state legislative leadership to finally land the stadium money they’ve been angling for for years; yes, some conservatives oppose tax kickbacks for sports teams because it’s public spending, but both Kendrick and his wife have worked to fund local Republican campaigns, and from the sound of things legislators are looking to return the favor, with public tax dollars.
Also Justin Wilmeth:
“In 2024, Wilmeth sponsored a bill to designate Pluto as Arizona’s State Planet”
So, his greatest accomplishment is the B Plot on a Rick & Morty episode
Keep reaching for the stars, jackleg !
I know this is late, but…
If they did about $300mm in revenue annually, the 10-20% means there’s $30-$60mm of vendor REVENUE per year. The 8.6% tax on that being kicked back would be more like $2.5-5mm a year. Is $5mm a year enough to pay for $500mm of renovations?
Argh, you’re right — I skipped a step in the math. Let me correct this now.