Taxpayer Watchdog Slams Approval of the Renovation of RFK Stadium

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224)-456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the D.C. City Council voted by a margin of 9 to 3 to advance a multi-billion-dollar renovation project for RFK Stadium and the surrounding area. The deal, which will bring the Washington Commanders back to the District, includes more than a $1 billion in direct public subsidies and still more in indirect subsidies. This was the first of two votes the Council will take.

In response, David McGarry, the research director at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA), offered the following comment:

“The D.C. Council has allowed itself to fall victim to the mirage of stadium subsidies. The District’s land is finite, its uses are finite uses, and taxpayer dollars are finite. There is nothing which suggests that stadiums are projects that promote unique economic growth. In fact, the experiences of cities nationwide suggest the promise of new stadiums are false and that such projects do not, in practice, produce substantial economic benefits. Wild hopes for newly made prosperity have been stoked by irresponsible political leaders who prefer flashy infrastructure projects to empirically proven methods of improving the lives of D.C. residents.

“Worse yet, the D.C. Council has transformed the redevelopment of the RFK Stadium campus into a logrolling exercise, with interest groups such as unions benefitting from the District’s profligacy. The rejuvenated RFK Stadium will attempt to be all things to all people. It is supposed to provide myriad jobs and civic pride, eateries and a grocery store, facilities for youth development and daycare, a dog park and a skate park, low-income housing and employment for ex-convicts — it may lead even to an extension of the city’s metro system. However, it does little to remedy the underlying failures of municipal policy that have restrained the businesses and residents of Washington from making the most out of their prodigious energies and talents. No fountain of subsidization can cure the maladies caused by such failures.

“The process by which today’s deal was struck was similarly faulty. A hearing at which the public could testify did not occur until Wednesday, after negotiations with the Commanders had been all but completed. The public’s testimony was a formality. Throughout the day, as citizens took time out of their busy lives to testify, most of the councilmembers’ seats behind the dais were vacant.

“The members of the D.C. Council will likely dodge scrutiny for the ill effects of today’s vote. Some portions of the RFK campus redevelopment will not be finished until 2040, if not later. By then, today’s vote will be reduced to only vaguely recollected history. Most likely, some of those who voted in the affirmative will likely have left D.C. politics. The recklessness and financial damage will last decades ought not be forgotten.”