Candidates' Forum on 9/20: Part 3 - 'Tell me about those tax incentives.'

Dear Santa Clarans,


Tax incentives for private businesses tend to get a lot of ink, especially in the most trying of economic times.

In the Candidates' Forum of last Monday, Candidates Patricia Mahan (Seat 2) and Pat Kolstad (Seat 5) were adamant: No tax incentives...

...unless it's their kind of private business.

The San Francisco 49ers are a private corporation, and in fact, they're a lot more private than most. The finances of NFL teams in general are never public information - just the way their millionaire owners like it.

Even with the 49ers a clear winner and with us losers on the deal: Mayor Mahan voted for, and former Councilman Pat Kolstad supported, a total of $444 million in subsidies for the construction of a stadium for the team.

With that, they supported a one-sided Term Sheet which shoves stadium ownership onto the Santa Clara Stadium Authority. The basis of the 49ers' tax liability is then roughly only the 10 days out of 365 that they're actually playing games in a stadium pretty much profitable only to them. The technical term for this assessment is "Possessory Interest Tax," or PIT - and in general, it's a huge break over what the 49ers would be paying us if they owned and operated their own stadium.

This is a big deal: Allowing the 49ers a tax incentive we would not give to any other private corporation is not only bad precedent - it's a substantial loss for us.

In addition, the 49ers stadium is going to generate only the most atrocious job creation in return for the amount of money the City of Santa Clara is leaving on the table. For that reason, when politicians claim that they deplore what they call "tax incentives," it behooves taxpayers to ask them what they really mean by the term - and who exactly is being incentivized.

Last week, I called this City Council race a contest between experience and potential. Regardless of the label, the best stewards of Santa Clara's public interests will be those who can put consistency and fairness back into issues just such as tax incentives.

Please vote on November 2nd.


Thanks for all of your support,
Bill Bailey, Treasurer,
Santa Clara Plays Fair

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