Being Fleeced
Jacksonville's Fancy Stadium of the Future
While we wait for the next episode of JEA season two, My Guy—our City Council special investigatory committee characters will meet again on Monday, April 13, at 1:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers—we locals won’t be too happy with a Washington Post April 3 editorial that claims Jacksonville’s taxpayers are being “fleeced” by none other than the National Football League.
“Ongoing Shakedown”
Calling the NFL’s decision to play Jaguars’ 2027 home games in Orlando “the latest stage in the ongoing shakedown of its [Jacksonville’s] taxpayers,” the editorial claims that the “usual argument for stadium subsidies”—“they create jobs and revitalize neighborhoods”—is “specious.” Furthermore, these folks claim “the Jaguars have the money to renovate their stadium,” and “the purpose of government isn’t to build fancy stadiums,” no matter how “fancy” our Stadium of the Future promises to be.
Not exactly news to we locals. We know we’re being fleeced.
It’s why the UNF 2024 poll found that 58% of voters “said they’d rather spend the money on other initiatives.” But when some of those other initiatives were factored into the stadium subsidy deal through the community benefits agreement, local support to subsidize the stadium increased to 56%. Since we didn’t get to vote on it, we don’t really know where we would have come out, as a public that is.
Seems, however, that we know how we want to spend our money; we just have trouble getting our way, and have learned that we must make expensive deals to get our fair share.
The “Very Rich”
The “very rich,” Fitzgerald’s Gatsby narrator Nick Carraway explains, “are different from you and me.”
None more so than our American billionaires, of which Forbes and others estimate to be around 1000 in number. Not only do they own more capital—the magic that makes the world go round—they yield unlimited power, live above it all with concierge everything, and contribute less than they could to our collective well-being.
According to multiple sources, including a 2021 paper issued by Greg Leiserson, then Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers and Danny Yagan, then Chief Economist, Office of Management and Budget, billionaires pay an average individual federal income rate of 8.2%, while the average tax rate for all American taxpayers is 14.5%. These are averages. Some individuals may pay more, some less. Currently, some states suffering from exorbitant land and housing costs have the audacity to suggest a special tax for these special ones, but our special ones are not having it. Rather than lend a helping hand, they threaten to move. Fifty reasons to leave your lover.
No doubt plenty of states will love to be fleeced.
Besides, who in America doesn’t know that little ole us—we the people—are being fleeced? Everyone understands how the game is played.
We’re led by elected representatives at all levels of government who cut taxes that disproportionately favor Fitzgerald’s “very rich;” incentivize condo and luxury hotel developments American tax-paying working people cannot afford, all while refusing to address affordable housing challenges. Just too hard. We reduce funding for Medicaid, affordable health care, food stamps, and child care, and threaten fixed-income seniors with reduced Medicare and Social Security benefits, all because our leaders try to convince us that we cannot afford what we once called “guns and butter.” No butter.
As more and more capital is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, we bankrupt all things public and guarantee that a fraying social safety net will disintegrate completely. Poof. That social safety net makes the voracious appetite of modern day technological capitalism survivable by just plain folks who work and pay taxes. We convince ourselves that we cannot afford to invest in we the people, because we could never ask them that have the most to share.
So No, We are not Unique
One wonders: why did Post editors feel compelled to publish this piece about us, and why now? As some readers mentioned in the comment section, pretty much every city boasting professional sports teams subsidizes billionaire team owners who do not need any taxpayer help. Afraid these special ones won’t love us anymore, we are all, each and everyone, all too willing to be fleeced, else our special ones ditch us for some other lover.
So no, we working Jacksonvillian’s are no different than any other urban taxpayers willing to be fleeced by folks who, as the Post editorial explains, do not need the public’s help.
Isn’t That Rich?
Sort of rich, though. The Post, owned by a billionaire worth $224 Billion, complains about an NFL franchise billionaire owner worth $14 Billion, taking advantage of little ‘ole us and making the point that government’s purpose is not to build “fancy stadiums.” These critics of billionaire NFL owners, however, do not tell us what they think government’s purpose is.
Traditionally, political theory asks these questions when positing the purpose of government: what is the nature of human nature? What is justice? And what is the good society? The answers suggest how folks answer the ultimate riddle: what is the purpose of government?
As you think about this year’s tax season, and as we approach the 250th anniversary of our American Declaration of Independence, ask yourself how you define the good society, and what you consider the purpose of government. Especially a government dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal, endowed with inalienable rights deriving from no man but from a common creator, and whose purpose our Framers said is to “promote the general welfare.”
What say ye?
And Now, Back to My Guy
While we wait for My Guy to resume, we should ask our State Attorney, what’s up? Should she investigate that out of the sunshine, no-bid contract string of documents Action News Jax’s Ben Becker discovered? You know, the documents that involve a former JEA board member character, the former JEA chief of staff whistleblower character, and a contract they helped facilitate between the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department and a Texas private telehealth company? Becker’s reporting raises questions about “transparency and compliance with ethics rules.”
Should we care?
In some years, billionaires such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and George Soros paid no federal income taxes at all. Billionaires avoid these taxes by taking out special ultra-low-interest loans available only to them and using their assets as collateral. (DOGE dope Musk is well on his way to becoming the first Trillionaire.)
Peter Thiel, whose company Palantir has made surveillance of the public by government easier, has $5 billion in his IRA -- tax-free if he can wait until 59-1/2 to cash in. (He's now 58.)
Shad Khan, by contrast, has a modest $16 billion net worth.
A number of the ricos above are migrating to Florida where Ron DeSantis' minions in the Legislature created 1,000-year, tax-free trusts and are threatening to abolish property taxes.
What is a po' boy to do?
As I continue to say, Sherry is our very own Heather Cox Richardson. Excellent writing while supplying verified facts - and asking us to consider fundamental questions about what we value and how we play a role in achieving a thriving community based on and abiding by our constitution. Most challenging to me is how do I/we hold people, especially elected officials and those who disperse and manage resources, accountable. Thank you for leading this cause as a citizen journalist!