Jacob S wrote: > > I know of a large metroplex where the only public transportation gets > tax money. The "business" talked the cities into adding a full > percentage point to their sales tax to help fund the bus line. And yes, > they're still worlds slower than driving your own car. >
I seem to recall that back in 1999, San Antonio voted to increase sales tax to fund a new basketball arena. Basically, the Spurs had just won the championship the previous season (the short one with the strike) and since the Alamodome had been built to attract an NFL team, the Spurs "demanded" a new arena or else they would look for another city. Some local business men got together and came up with this ingenious plan whereby they provided something like 25-30% of the captical to build the stadium and the city would raise sales tax to cover the rest. Of course, being that these businessmen were so concerned for the public interest, they offored to retain ownership of the arena (even though the city was footing most of the bill) and then lease it back to the city so that the Spurs could use it. Of course, they also reserved the right to lease it out to other people/organizations (think concerts, that sort of thing). The really sad thing is that the sales tax increase was voted in. I am not sure if I got all the details exactly correct, since I am going from memory, but you get the idea. -Roberto -- Roberto C. Sanchez http://familiasanchez.net/~roberto
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