Financial Priorities: Spending on Stadiums vs. Schools
Is it time to re-evaluate the amount of public money utilized to subsidize sports stadiums at the expense of other community needs? The editorial team at FormSwift believes so. With that in mind, FormSwift shares an easy-to-digest, user-friendly resource to begin learning about the misplaced spending priorities of many state governments regarding sports stadiums.
Dubious Tax-Free Statuses
Allen High School’s Eagle Stadium in Allen, TX. (Aerial Photography, Inc./Wikipedia)
Today, the Dallas Cowboys play at a stadium that’s probably worth almost $1 billion. Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys, could be paying property taxes on that facility that amount to $6 million annually. And how much does Jones actually pay in stadium property taxes each year? The answer is nothing. The Cowboys are exempt from those taxes much as the NFL, which is classified as a nonprofit, pays nothing in corporate taxes.
The fact that NFL teams don’t pay those taxes affects the students who attend schools in the greater Houston and Dallas areas. In Texas, school systems are largely funded by tax money from local businesses. It’s a system that leads to disparities throughout the state, one that many people have long found unfair.
In fact, during the early 1970s, a group of parents in the San Antonio independent school district of Edgewood filed a lawsuit. They argued that local property taxes shouldn’t support schools as that approach will always lead to inequality. San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez reached the Supreme Court in 1973.
In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court stated that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee equal educational funding, and it let Texas continue to subsidize its schools with local property taxes. Since that controversial decision, federal courts have largely allowed states to allocate educational dollars however they see fit.
The amount of money that a school receives every year can be a significant factor in overall student progress. When a state or municipality increases its per pupil spending, its schools can hire better-trained and more experienced teachers, have smaller class sizes, purchase more computers and so on.
According to the National Education Association, during the 2015-2016 school year, Texas spent $9,561 per pupil on average, which made it 38th among the 50 states and Washington, D.C. The national average was $12,251 per pupil.
Of course, state averages can be a little misleading; discrepancies between cities and counties within the same state can be considerable. For that reason, in more than a dozen states ? Texas among them ? certain communities are suing their state government for a more equitable distribution of public school dollars.
A New Era in Football Financing?
EverBank Field, home to the Jacksonville Jaguars, is an example of a NFL stadium being developed into a mixed-use entertainment venue. Currently an amphitheater/indoor practice field is being added to the existing stadium. The next phase will possibly include stores, restaurants and a hotel. (Populous)
Government largesse toward football teams and their stadiums may dwindle as the public learns more about these deals and begins to oppose them. Roger Noll, an economist at Stanford University, says that stadiums could become smaller in the future, and they might be built alongside residences, stores and other businesses. Such multipurpose projects would earn more revenue, and state and local governments would thus get a greater return on their investments.
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