A county in Georgia is raising taxes in order to pay for public parks, even as it spends $400 million to fund a new stadium for the Atlanta Braves. Further, while citizens of Cobb County voted in favor of funding public parks, they weren’t given a say about building the stadium.
As Reason reports:

…in a jaw-droppingly cynical act of crony capitalism and untransparent government, the county has found a way to come up with approximately $400 million in public funds to subsidize the new stadium being built for Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves, even though it denied the public a vote in the matter.“]
Although the stadium’s site claims that Cobb County residents’ taxes won’t go up due to the stadium, this claim is misleading.
It’s easy to claim that a new stadium won’t increase taxes. Governments simply spend funds that would otherwise go to public services like schools and parks on the stadium. Then, when they need to raise taxes as a result, they point to the necessity of funding parks and education, rather than the expenses racked up by subsidizing a sports stadium.
We see this public support of private sports teams and stadiums play out over and over again. Read the full article for more on this story and the many other instances of taxpayer-funded stadiums.
Or, check out ReasonTV’s video below for a look at how similar problems have faced Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Connecticut.