I just found out I have to pay a Spring Training and Cactus League baseball tax to rent a car in Arizona. This is about $8 bucks on a small car for five days. This merely adds to the already outrageous taxes on car rentals in AZ. Who does this ball tax benefit? The cost of a seat at a spring training or Cactus League game is pretty high for the average working schmuck. (I think I read it is now up to about thirty bucks to sit on the grass in some stadiums!) So he probably cannot afford to go anyway.
Okay, baseball brings in lots of money to the state and private businesses in AZ. Lots of tourists visit there to see games. But my guess is very little of that actually benefits most Arizonians. If a restaurant gets more business due to increased tourism, will it pay its waiter or other worker better? Are the tips he gets going to make a huge increase in his take home pay? Perhaps in some venues but certainly not in most, although I am sure the waiter can use anything extra he gets. Is the guy cleaning the stadiums going to make more money? I doubt it, although you might argue he would not have a job at all if there were no tourists to come to the games. That would not hold water, though because the tourists come to see the games and do not come because they benefit by the tax. In other words, the tourists would be there regardless of the tax and so the tax does not provide the person cleaning the stadium with a job. He would be needed anyway.
So tourists are picking up the tab for a private enterprise--Major League Baseball in AZ. How is this tax levied? Is it just on certain items like car rentals, or is it included on most things? Is everyone paying it or mostly just tourists and people visiting AZ on business? I don't know. I like baseball but think it should pay for itself like most businesses have to do. The Cactus League clubs, like most other major league clubs, seem intent on pricing themselves out of reach of the average person. Who, besides players, owners and investors benefit from that extra money? I have a feeling it is not anyone I know. But of course, this is private enterprise so whatever people are willing to pay determines price. But for the state to add a tax to an already too high cost of a game charged by the clubs, seems like gouging. Just where does the income earned by the state via this tax go? It may be that it is put to really good use, say, education or securing the border. That would certainly make the tax seem less odious. If anyone can tell me, I would like to know. It seems to me there could be other ways to encourage baseball in AZ besides this tax. I realize you have to spend money to make money and I have no problem with that as long as everyone who spends it is also making it.
Here is a article on another aspect of baseball and taxes: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-jock-tax/
