Without batting an eye, our unanimously fiscally highly responsible all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors recently approved handing over $2 million of your tax dollars to the Washington Redskins football team — part of a larger $6.4 million payoff negotiated by highly fiscally responsible free-market champion Republican Governor Bob McDonnell.
Major Loudoun Tourist Attraction: A corporate office building
The deal, it was explained, will ensure that the Redskins keep their corporate HQ in Loudoun for at least a few more years. Supervisor Shawn Williams (R-Broad Run), a big fan, could hardly contain his excitement about what a coup this was for Loudoun . . . even though, just a minor detail, the team will still be abandoning its training camp in Loudoun next year. But Williams explained that the move of the training camp to Richmond was being made “for football related reasons” and, after all, who are we to question “football related reasons”: it’s not as if handing over a mere $2 million in free money to a large for-profit company entitles us to be that presumptuous.
The money by the way comes from the Transit and Occupancy Tax, and is required by state law to be spent “solely for tourism and travel, marketing of tourism, or initiatives” that increase overnight visitors staying in hotels and motels. Continue reading
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