Comments on: The Quid Pro Quo of Shiny New Videoboards http://southside.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/04/06/the-quid-pro-quo-of-shiny-new-videoboards/ Just another Baseball Prospectus Local Sites site Wed, 05 Dec 2018 22:40:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1 By: South Side - Baseball Prospectus http://southside.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/04/06/the-quid-pro-quo-of-shiny-new-videoboards/#comment-421 Thu, 12 May 2016 17:01:25 +0000 http://southside.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=513#comment-421 […] This season, the state paid for construction and maintenance of new state-of-the-art video boards. […]

]]> By: Dan Rivera http://southside.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/04/06/the-quid-pro-quo-of-shiny-new-videoboards/#comment-112 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 22:19:30 +0000 http://southside.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=513#comment-112 Thank you for writing this. It should be obvious to most people that taxpayers footing the bill for private enterprises without compensation should be viewed as a complete scam.

]]> By: Matthew http://southside.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/04/06/the-quid-pro-quo-of-shiny-new-videoboards/#comment-109 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 10:42:40 +0000 http://southside.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=513#comment-109 guess what? life ins’t fair.

]]> By: South Side - Baseball Prospectus http://southside.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/04/06/the-quid-pro-quo-of-shiny-new-videoboards/#comment-102 Wed, 06 Apr 2016 15:29:45 +0000 http://southside.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=513#comment-102 […] The video boards that the White Sox debuted at U.S. Cellular Field Tuesday may be a large public investment from a hopelessly bankrupt state, but they certainly look nice! $7 million buys some laaaaaarge screens. The screens will definitely […]

]]> By: Jtwalsh http://southside.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/04/06/the-quid-pro-quo-of-shiny-new-videoboards/#comment-99 Wed, 06 Apr 2016 11:44:56 +0000 http://southside.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=513#comment-99 Chris, the problem is with public authorities. Their funds are not mixed in the the state’s general funds. Authorities operate as an independent semi-corporation. They can issue bonds and obligate taxpayers, but they operate largely independent of said governmental control. In the case of this authority, the new Comiskey should have been paid for 5x over with the revenue the authority generated. I believe it has expanded beyond its original mandate and become involved in other stadia.

An authority is very unlikely to kick its revenue into the general fund. That spending these funds when the state is in dire financial straits is bad optics, that money would never been available to schools or parks or the general fund to begin with.

Just how much money has this authority squirreled away? Are taxes on restaurants & hotels still funding the authority 26 years after the stadium opened?

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