What? Give a sports team money that should go to schools?
The Cavaliers want taxpayers to help pay for a proposed $20 million practice field in Independence.
The team wants to borrow money from the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority and then use some of the taxes it will pay on the sports complex -- which normally go to schools and government -- to repay the loans.
Asked if that means the Cavs are in line for a tax break, Independence Mayor Fred Ramos said: "They may be, yes."
Don't be too hard on Ohio and the Cavs until we hear next from the Colts, and see what Indiana's response is.
NOTE: I redid this post, including cutting and pasting Mike Kole's comment, because the original picked up the coding for an ad that was in the Cleveland paper.
Comments
As a former Clevelander, this doesn't surprise me a bit. Within a five-year span in the 90s, Cleveland built taxpayer funded palaces for the Indians, Cavs, and the Browns, at a total cost of over $1.5 billion. In Cleveland-think another $20 million is nothing, especially since the Cavs just went to the playoffs for the first time in almost a decade. They'll tout the handful of jobs and the prestige it will bring to Independence.
Sadly, Hoosiers are buying into the same nonsense- that you have to give sports franchises the moon and stars in order to keep them and to be perceived as a major league city. Really, all it proves is that there are a lot of first class suckers.
Posted by: Mike Kole | May 25, 2006 7:36:33 AM