The next time your mayor, county commissioner, or other local official complains about budget cuts or cites the recession as an excuse to raise your taxes to fund “essentials,” check to see if the locality in question has used your tax money to subsidize a new sports stadium, ballpark, convention center, theater, tourist attraction, or aquatic center. All too often, the answer will be yes.

New York City residents, for example, have every right to be dismissive of such talk given that taxpayers have been compelled to shell out $1.8 billion in subsidies to build stadiums for the Yankees and Mets. From the Heartland Institute’s Budget & Tax News:

A 2007 study by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation found heavily subsidized stadium projects were significantly more expensive on average than largely privately funded projects. The study found stadiums where taxpayers bore a majority of the cost were $65 million more expensive on average than those for which private entities paid the bulk of the tab.
While private financiers have every reason to scrutinize costs closely, “Government bureaucrats … are often more concerned with reelection prospects and PR plaudits than with cost containment,” the study notes.
In addition, the study found the average taxpayer subsidy per stadium is on the rise and shows no signs of slowing. The amount taxpayers paid for each facility rose 41 percent in just the eight years leading up to 2004.