Whipped Cream Difficulties

Over at the American McCarver blog, Michele Catalano makes an impassioned plea to save the New York Islanders:

There are people screaming in opposition about the $58.00 a year our property taxes will go up if this vote is passed and I get that, I do. We’re one of the highest taxed counties in the nation (our average annual property tax is $8,306) already. But $58.00 a year to save your hockey team? That’s too much to ask?

Yes, Michele, it is. I get that I’m not a Nassau County resident, and the decision isn’t up to me; the voters will decide on August 1st. But the question shouldn’t be “Is $58 a year too much to ask?” It should be “Why should the taxpayers of Nassau County, who I already concede pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation, subsidize this thing I’m interested in to the tune of $58 a year?”

Catalano’s arguments for why seem to boil down to two things:

1. It would make Catalano sad if the Islanders left.
   

   Ask any fan of any sport whose team has left them what it feels like…Ask a Baltimore Colts fan what it’s like. That’s the stuff earnest young men in black rimmed glasses with acoustic guitars write hit songs about.

   Well, if it’d stop “earnest young men in black rimmed glasses” from writing acoustic guitar songs about losing the Islanders, I’m all for it. More seriously, I understand Catalano’s sadness. But the population of Nassau County in 2010 was 1,339,532. The Islanders average attendance in 2010 was 11,060. By my calculations (and assuming the Islanders draw their attendance just from Nassau County, and not the surrounding area) that’s about 0.825% of the population that actually attends games. 100% of the population will get hit by that “only $58 a year”. Even the people who rent will see the property tax increase passed on to them in the form of higher prices for goods and services. Which leads to Catalano’s second point:

2. Approving the tax increase will result in net positive economic benefits. That’s a much better argument than Catalano’s sadness. And, to be honest, this stadium deal doesn’t look as bad as a lot of other deals. The excellent Field of Schemes website has been covering the Islanders proposal, and I commend their coverage to your attention. In brief, though…
   

   …the county would be paying to build an arena and handing over control of 77 acres of development rights to Islanders owner Charles Wang, and in return would get … somewhere between a $12 million a year loss and a $2 million (and rising) a year profit, assuming you count as “profit” taxes that any development on the site, including the existing Nassau Coliseum, would be paying anyway.

   And…

   …consultant Camoin Associates explains how they projected that the county would end up turning a $2 million a year profit on the deal: “If the Arena is not built, the Islanders have stated that they would leave and the County has said that the Coliseum would eventually close. All economic activity associated with the Islanders would be lost to the County.” In other words, the only thing the new arena plan was compared to was scorched earth — and every single dollar currently spent on hockey or concerts at the Coliseum (aside from any concerts that could relocate to a different Nassau venue) would be assumed to disappear from the county economy. There’s no indication that Camoin made any attempt to account for the substitution effect — i.e., the possibility that if the Islanders really moved away and the county closed the Coliseum in a fit of pique, a couple from Ronkonkoma denied the ability to buy Motley Crue tickets might just decide to go to the movies locally instead of driving to Brooklyn.

   That’s pretty much Catalano’s attitude: “…if the Islanders go, the Coliseum goes and then the surrounding business community dies.” In short, if you don’t buy this stadium, we’ll kill this pizza parlor.

I’d love it if I could get people in Travis County to pay $58 a year for my obsessions. Think of all the books and Registered Magnums I could buy. But the difference between me and Catalano is that I wouldn’t presume to ask folks in Travis County to subsidize my interests. Catalano, and far too many other sports fans, have the idea that this kind of request is not just okay, but an entitlement. That’s not what “the pursuit of happiness” means.