The NFL lobbied hard, and the president reportedly lent a hand.
After feuding with the National Football League for months, over everything from how players act during the national anthem to whether the games are violent enough, President Donald Trump appears to agree with the league about at least one thing: Taxpayers should subsidize stadiums.
The Republican-crafted tax reform bill, which is expected to pass both chambers of Congress today, maintains the current federal tax exemption for bonds issued to pay for the construction of stadiums.
An earlier version of the bill, which cleared the House in November, would have done away with that exemption (though public projects such as infrastructure could have been funded with tax-free bonds). The NFL lobbied to kill that change, and the version of the bill that emerged from the conference committee deleted the provision.
Preserving the ability to use tax-exempt bonds for sports stadiums was “a priority for Mr. Trump,” according to a GOP aide who spoke to The Wall Street Journal.
Reason
Eric Boehm | Dec. 19, 2017 10:29 am