Staff Reports
Americans for Prosperity-Florida—the pro-free market, government spending watchdog—is sending out direct mail to urge support for ending “corporate welfare” for billionaire sports-team owners.
Legislation pending in the 2018 Session would “eliminate taxpayer handouts to build stadiums on public lands, and end a program that gives professional sports teams subsidies to expand their stadiums,” the group said in a Wednesday release.
“The first bill, sponsored by Rep. Bryan Avila and Sen. Tom Lee, would repeal the Florida Sports Development Fund and ban Florida sports teams from receiving taxpayer money to renovate stadiums on public land,” it said.
“The second proposal, also sponsored by Rep. Avila, would prohibit sports franchises from developing facilities on public lands without meeting strict fair-market value requirements,” it added. “Sen. Rene Garcia has sponsored similar legislation in the Senate.”
“It’s not the role of government to be in the sports and entertainment business,” AFP-FL state director Chris Hudson said in a statement.
“Continuing to use millions of dollars in taxpayer money to build or renovate professional sports stadiums, while there are real infrastructure needs across Florida just doesn’t make sense … We urge the House and Senate to quickly act and pass these bills into law that will finally get taxpayers off the hook from financing private business ventures with little to no return on investment.”
