by fairleft
$50 Million Priorities: TVs on Back of Stadium Seats? 35 Students per Class?
12:51 am in Uncategorized by fairleft
Photo: Casey Serin / Flickr
(File under “The NFL is the f#$@king 1%!”) Not completely sure who’s right on the legal technicalities, but this is our world, where mainstream ‘news’ tells us we should be shocked over the following:
Out of nowhere, Santa Clara County officials have yanked $30 million in tax funds promised for the San Francisco 49ers’ new Santa Clara stadium, saying they would rather spend the money on teachers than install “little televisions in the back of stadium seats.”
But, in this economy, pulling back $30 million on a deal where the city of Santa Clara — population 116,000 – borrowed $850 million (from Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and U.S. Bank) to build a $1.2 billion dollar stadium for the San Francisco 49ers? I mean whose side is your heart on? Even if you’re a Niners fan?
In fact, the article indicates the new Santa Clara County board of supervisors is within its rights to take from the rich and give to the teachers and schools in this instance. Hey, good for them! County tax collector George Putris, who proposed the idea, states his understanding that the Niners
want to spend $50 million to install televisions on the back of seats like those on airliners … He said the need was greater at other public agencies, such as school districts.
“We’re talking about schoolteachers, whether they get laid off, whether there are 35 kids in a classroom, whether there are seismic retrofits,” Putris said.
Final comment by wash_eagle at SFGate:
I’m shocked, shocked that public funds would be diverted from a private project to public education.
9:25 PM on June 24, 2012
