Theories on Dundon: the NBA BOG approved his purchase bc they don’t want the NBA in Portland; they didn’t know he’d be a twat and now have buyers remorse; or they knew he was going to be a twat and wanted him to be the foil to make all other owners look benevolent—-good owner/bad owner sorta thing.

As I pointed out to a journalist, under it's 1992 lease, OAC/Rip City had to surrender it's ownership in Moda by no later than 12/31/25 anyway. That the city bought it for $1 in 2024 means a few things but to me the most interesting is that the city overpaid (but did get ownership 1.5 years early).

For anyone that cares about such things, data centers should be centrally assessed. They are nodes in an information utility system, not warehouses with lots of personal property. This means valuing them as parts of a system rather than as standalone brick+mortar. This is a hill I’ll die on.

The idea that the value of a ptax break is based ONLY on current land use reveals a deeply flawed understanding of land econ. By this logic, govt should own all property bc it would generate no taxes, hence no taxpayer cost, an f'ing bonkers and false claim. www.chicagobusiness.com/opinion/comm...

Modesto kills USL stadium proposal in the works for two years. For now anyway. What makes this remarkable is that it was rejected on a vote, not killed in some committee early in the policy process. www.modbee.com/news/local/a...

Stars arena in Plano is on the agenda tomorrow. Under the current plan, a referendum will be required. Proposed TIRZ is both ptax and sut. Also on the table: increases in the car rental tax, hotel tax, event parking tax, and admission tax. My current est for the ptax TIRZ is $645m pv over 30 yrs.

Someone should tell DeSantis he didn’t make a property tax savings calculator. He made a home insurance premium increase calculator. Interesting H0, though: eliminating ptaxes increases FL home insurance suppliers. www.wfla.com/news/desanti...

The real loser of the Spurs-Thunder series is Vivek Ranadive. Mike Brown and DeAaron Fox (and Harrison Barnes) are going to the Finals. As a Kings fan, I’m stoked for them.

You can't solve the stadium subsidy mess with more subsidies, so the whole "let's get the feds to make stadiums/arenas eligible for historic tax credits to reduce s&l govts buying new stadiums every 30 years" is a silly argument. www.cleveland.com/opinion/2026...

Subsidy debates are filled with bromides. Case in point, Hillsborough Comms' dropping "real" to make themselves sound thoughtful, presumably in an attempt to convince skeptics that they haven't already made up their minds. Real tax base as opposed to fake tax base? www.tampabay.com/news/hillsbo...

Oregonian ed board arguing Portland's fiscal challenges are not caused by declining revenue but soaring costs. Its rec solution to soaring costs? Subsidize an arena reno. Re declining revenue, the city bought the arena, removing it from the tax rolls for ~$2m/yr www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2026...

I watch Korean baseball. Twice each break are Trump commercials praising him for reducing cigarette smoking. The argument? He is making flavored vapes cheaper and more accessible. We should praise Trump bc he is increasing addiction another way. That’s his argument. I live in a Black Mirror episode.

Props to whoever convinced lawmakers to drop the clause in the megaprojects bill that allowed a project's market value to be included in local debt limits. There are other reasons why ptaxes will go up bc of the legislation, but that was easily the biggest risk factor. Hopefully it stays out.

SF1501 in MN creates a sports event slush fund from tax increments---but which increments for which taxes measured by whom? The bill spells out the 1st (a mega tif!) and the third-ish. UMN will determine the size of the increment, uh, but UMN isn't a person. My $ is on the marketing dept.

More air tight lawmaker logic. The arena is city owned only bc the city bought it and some land in 2024 from the blazers, costing city taxpayers ~$2m/yr in ptaxes. Now the gov uses that policy choice to give hundreds of millions more in taxpayer resources to the team. www.koin.com/news/portlan...

Caputo’s in Brooklyn…you made the best olive loaf I’ve ever had, and you were a staple of my family’s life while we lived there. Sorry to see you go, and thank you for the memories.

There's enough info to get a ballpark ptax cost estimate of Royals Hallmark HQ stadium proper. Nom is $678 to $1,384 m --- real is $428 to $873 m (at 3%) over 30yrs. Here's a table showing the cost distributed by the public services affected by the proposed exemption.

I will take the over on 10 times "transformational" or its derivatives are used in the Royals announcement.

While we all wait for Royals shenanigans, here's a window into how lawmakers make terrible fiscal and budgeting decisions. It doesn't matter if it's a rounding error. If you dismiss spending millions bc it's a small %, you can always justify taxing and spending more. www.wusf.org/sports/2026-...

I’m sure this has something to do with website building, but how does Armenian get plugged into KMBC’s article about Royals stadium? Curiously, Google says the same typo appeared in a Business Insider Africa article two days ago. Not sports related; just curious.

NASA sounds like cell phone customer service. NASA: “Just to confirm you are pressing the PTT (push to talk) button?” Astronaut inside voice: “Really? I just came back from the f’ing moon and you’re asking me if I’m pressing the walkie talkie button?” Astronaut outside voice: “Yes.”

Illinois state lawmakers willing to log roll Bears support for property tax relief clearly have no f’ing clue what the megaproject bill does. Any project’s EAV gets included in taxing authorities’ debt limit. This means tax rates can (and will) increase. capitolnewsillinois.com/news/house-r...

Show Me Act covers 50% + $50m in tax credits. That’s $1b of the proposed $1.9b (a little less in npv). The city kicks in $600m upfront, getting to $1.6b. JackCo probably kicks in the rest? Free stadium for Sherman?

A whole week to evaluate a financing plan that would give billions to a billionaire? Missouri lawmakers, you are so generous! For a reference point, as of today state and city lawmakers have had 60x more time to debate whether to ban liquor stores from selling mini liquor bottles in KC.

About to watch Congressman Greg Casar and Bernie talk about the new Home Team Act, which would require a team owner to sell a team locally before moving across state lines or across MSAs. www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/u...

Remember that Sam Darnold jock tax story that went viral a month back? Folks with basic state inc tax knowledge knew it was wrong bc it excluded bonuses, ignored local inc taxes, and made residency assumptions. Here’s a great article explaining that bad viral tax math. www.cfo.com/news/what-cf...

Was cleaning out some files from a box @neildemause.bsky.social gave me a decade ago and found this 1979 Topps Jamie Easterly card. Assuming I remember to bring it, you’ll be receiving a gift at the sports econ conf @jcbradbury.com

Quote fixed. Just a reminder that when the Cowboys moved to Arlington, Irving's sales tax revenue increased (holding rates constant). fox4kc.com/sports/chief...

No reason for the author to exaggerate here. I collect the data on this. It’s more like a coin toss with direct democracy, but yeah, it’s all but certain the representative democracy route. www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootb...

My univ is on the verge of a 3yr contract with OpenAI, which will now give the feds access to anything emps/students use ChatGPT for w/o subpoena/CORA. Contract was in the works before the anthropic news, but I don't trust my leaders to care about such trivial things as academic freedom and privacy.

If you live in Illinois, you have my sympathy for what your state lawmakers are about to do to you. If HB0910 passes as is, any megaproject's EAV will be allowed to enter a taxing district's debt capacity limit even though those projects won't be paying ptaxes on post-con EAV b/c of the freeze.

Given all the attention on the Bears, it’s easy to miss voters in my neighbor to the north, Greeley, overturning a local law giving taxpayer resources for a sports and theme park anchored mixed use development. www.9news.com/article/news...

Based Bears proposed uses at AH, I estimate the value of the property assessment freeze to the Bears in HB2789 is worth about $2b over 30 years, or $67 million a year before PILOT. I low ball multiple things to create lower limit. I wouldn't be surprised to see the est closer to $3b at build out.

On IN Bears fiscal note: worth pointing out my local tax $ ests from last week are close to this week's LSA numbers. I think they low ball (not unreasonably) ticket tax. Biggest unknown is district size. Taxpayer resources easily past $4b with current knowns. DC still holds on to the crown for now.

IN offering Bears mega TIF through its PSDA program. PSDA’s are 1mi straight line from the PSDA border, so lots of cannibalization will occur. Lawmakers say it’ll cost $1b, but that’s only if you count like a politician. Debt service, mid-lease reno , tax exp, debt capacity opp cost alone are ~$4b.

Hahaha! I’ve had a night to sleep on this news, and still my only thought is laughter. www.wqad.com/article/news...

Here we go again. STAR bonds (but in IL), "transformational", politicians changing their minds...taxpayer dollars for sports facilities and data centers (and others ofc), so f'ing stupid. www.ksdk.com/article/news...

My favorite part of this article is where the author opines Portland has been mismanaged and then argues that a partial solution would be to give the Blazers' billionaire owner hundreds of millions more in city and county taxpayer resources. www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2026...

“Just local sales tax” is false. Olathe levies a ptax millage, and rezoning the parcel away from ag and making it exempt creates a ~$1.7m/yr cost for city residents; $37m in pv over 30 yrs. The county, schools, and state also will face ptax costs. www.kansascity.com/news/local/c...

Indiana's SB27 for the Bears has a $1 purchase option for the facility+land in 40yrs, or $0.34 in today dollars. A 15-acre stadium site's market value around Gary in 40yrs worth about $145m at 5% mean annual appreciation in future dollars. And the team wouldn't even have to buy the land.

With a proposed Rays stadium cost figure finally being made public, a ballpark ptax expenditure estimate is possible, albeit with a huge error margin for lack of details. $2.3b (nom)/$742m (real). Team may also not have to pay parcel fees worth $294m/$97m, resp. www.tampabay.com/news/tampa/2...

Yeah, yeah, I remember that deal. That’s the one where it was a super duper mega TIF worth billions to leonsis and where your consultants so blatantly double counted state and local impacts and assumed $750 a night hotel rooms in the project potter forecasts. www.alxnow.com/2026/01/16/o...

NJ state Rs still had 30% of their lawmakers support the $300m for the arena, so the whole oligarchy argument falls flat. Maybe get your lawmakers in line first? Then again, KS and MO are full of Rs and they are jonesing to give billionaires loads of taxpayer $s. newjerseymonitor.com/2026/01/13/p...

Franklin Co vote will bring total city+county casino tax $ allocation to $12m annually, a $4m annual increase. But don't worry: it's money well spent bc none of the planned upgrades have anything to do with attracting concerts (ie bigger team store, new bathrooms). www.10tv.com/article/news...

Kansas lawmakers did every NFL and pro-subsidy lawmaker a huge favor. KS has agreed to commit so much in taxpayer resources that every other team can argue their demands are cheap in comparison. And that's how subsidies continue their upward march. www.9news.com/article/spor...

The state is using Chiefs HQ as a carrot for munis to give their tax $s too. States should always discourage, not encourage, horizontal local gov competition as it’s wasteful. Since KS gov has committed state $s to go the cost alone, munis would be foolish to help. www.kansascity.com/news/local/a...

MO lawmakers, the best way to get back at KS isn't to woo their exes (ie lure KS biz to MO with $) but to doll yourself up. Take the money you don't have to spend on sports and invest in schools, infrastructure, etc, things that make regular people better off. missouriindependent.com/2025/12/22/p...

Ouch. Current est of public resources to the Chiefs is $6.3b (nom) and $4.1b (real). I assume the $2.775b "cap" is all debt financed. Cost comes down if state uses cash. Cap is not what is owed to bond holders but what the state commits to project. $6.3b is rivaled by DC deal for the Commanders.

Want a nutshell summary of how bad this Kansas deal is for taxpayers? So bad that the state couldn't even get the team to comp food for its suite. Even after agreeing to give the team $2.775b.

If the Chiefs don't have the site, wherever it is, under contract by 5/15/2026, they can terminate the agreement. Seems like a low bar. There are other stipulations that can lead to a terminated agreement; this one just caught my attention.