Irving's Demolition Tax

DallasBlog.com | Norm Hitzges:

“The City of Irving is proposing a vote to approve a $10 per ticket tax along with a $3 per vehicle tax for fans attending Dallas Cowboys games at Texas Stadium for the team’s final 3 seasons in Irving. ... According to city officials, that money will be dedicated to improving and developing the site of the stadium after the Cowboys leave. ... In the City of Arlington this is a user tax. But, the same exact tax in Irving will be a demolition tax. That’s a huge difference. Here’s an idea for the City of Irving: just tell us the truth. Tell us that it is going to cost a lot of money to redevelop Texas Stadium and you don’t want it to come out of your budget. But please don’t insult our intelligence by comparing the building of one venue to the demolition of another.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

OK. Arlington is charging a use tax to build a new stadium. Irving is charging a use tax to tear down an old one. Different? Not so much. A sports stadium, built in some kind of public/private partnership, imposes many costs on its host city over its lifetime. Construction costs. Maintenance costs. Access costs. And, yes, demolition costs. Charging use fees while the stadium is still operating to cover the expenses of that last part of a stadium's life, after it's abandoned, is forward thinking on the part of the Irving city government.

I wish that more cities had forethought of the burdens that businesses leave behind when they pack up and move to greener pastures. Businesses find it cheaper to move to the exurbs and build their new offices or stores on empty cotton fields than to renovate an old site nearer city center. The cities being abandoned are left with decaying assets and a declining tax base to do anything about it.

The cycle will repeat. The young cities luring the businesses today ought to be watching and learning from Irving's experience. Someone's got to pay for demolition. It's only fair that it be the ones who enjoyed the party and left the mess behind.