Taxpayers generally don't like to fund sports arenas, but politicians often push them through anyway, according to Steven Malanga, senior editor of City Journal and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
"Although taxpayers have become wary of these investments and have consistently voted them down, politicians continue to find ways around taxpayer approval of these bonds, oftentimes with the complicity of the courts," Malanga told George Marlin, guest host of "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
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"For instance, in Miami where the stadium that was built for the Miami Marlins essentially was voted down by the taxpayers, and yet they used different gimmicks to build the stadium anyway."
That Major League Baseball stadium, Malanga says, has been an "absolute disaster," with hundreds of millions of dollars in public debt.
"The Marlins are not attracting enough attendants, there's no economic bounce whatsoever, and worst of all, the people of the area did not want it," he said.
"But you continue to see politicians find ways around these things in the same way. Let's face it, they use these techniques and gimmicks to find ways around debt limitation clauses and state constitutions for other stuff."
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