{"id":27225,"date":"2012-04-03T05:47:44","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T10:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=27225"},"modified":"2012-04-03T09:36:42","modified_gmt":"2012-04-03T14:36:42","slug":"a-reality-based-look-at-the-vikings%e2%80%99-proclaimed-tax-contributions-wilfare-the-deets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=27225","title":{"rendered":"Shorting The Tab"},"content":{"rendered":"

At this blog (and much moreso at Gary Gross’ Let Freedom Ring<\/a><\/em> and Mr. D’s eponymous Neighborhood<\/a><\/em>), we’ve been trying to unpack the fabrications behind the Dayton \/ Bakk stadium proposal – including the fantasy that electronic pull tabs are going to cover the state’s contribution.<\/p>\n

One thing I haven’t done is look into what the team supposedly contributes in terms of taxes.<\/p>\n

Paul Udstrand at Thoughtful Bastards <\/em>has, though<\/a>:<\/p>\n

According to [MinnPost’s Joe Kimball] a group going by the name: \u201cHome Team Advanage\u201d has issued a \u201creport\u201d claiming that MN stands to loose $533 million dollars if the Vikings leave the state. HTA claims that the Vikings have generated $320 million in sales tax revenue, and $360 in income tax revenue from Vikings players since 1982.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s really no way to avoid the conclusion that these numbers are flat out distortions and fabrications. The $320 million figure comes from a 2009 RSM McGradrey report that was commissioned the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission. I\u2019ve excerpted the relevant table and provided it below:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Udstrand includes a bit of spreadsheetery:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Spreadsheet courtesy the thoughtful bastards at "Thoughtful Bastards", where it's probably much easier to read. <\/p><\/div>\n

As you can see, the tax contributions since the Metrodome opened are listed in columns starting with the Twins. If you look at the totals you see that the Vikings total has been $166,514,612. So where does HTA get the $320? Notice the total for ALL sports in the very last column is $319,306,727. HTA rounded it (wrongly) up to $320. In other words they almost doubled amount the Vikings have paid by included ALL taxes generated by ALL pro sports activity. The actual vikings contribution once you subtract personal income tax is $52 million. I find it hard to believe a bunch of business boys can\u2019t read a basic spreadsheet so one has to suspect this is NOT an innocent mistake. At best it\u2019s beyond sloppy research.<\/p>\n

HTA also claims that the Vikings pay $20 million a year in state income taxes. The actual figure for 2010 was $12 million.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s much more. \u00a0I’ll urge you to read the whole thing.<\/p>\n

And then remember that every single portion <\/em>of the Dayton \/ Bakk stadium plan fails to add up – the City of Minneapolis’ contribution, the expected doubling in gambling revenue, or the projected benefits.<\/p>\n

Nothing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At this blog (and much moreso at Gary Gross’ Let Freedom Ring and Mr. D’s eponymous Neighborhood), we’ve been trying to unpack the fabrications behind the Dayton \/ Bakk stadium proposal – including the fantasy that electronic pull tabs are going to cover the state’s contribution. One thing I haven’t done is look into what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,127,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mn-legislature","category-the-incredible-shrinking-governor","category-the-rare-sports-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27225"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27245,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27225\/revisions\/27245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}