From Running Bases to Running Our Lives

Illinois Review ^ | November 13, 2010 A.D. | John F. Di Leo

[jfd1776]

The Chicago Cubs have proposed a renovation plan. For just $300 million in public funds, the Chicago Cubs, a company in the private sector, would be kind enough to renovate its own property, Wrigley Field, so that it can more successfully attract customers to buy tickets to make itself more successful.

Now, I’m not in the construction business, so I can’t estimate the financial aspects of this proposal. Don’t expect me to say that they’re proposing too much or too little for such a job – I have no way of knowing – though I suspect that for $300 million in tax dollars, the state of Illinois just might be able to get a team that has won a World Series at least once in the last, oh, century or so. Is that really too much to ask?

No, I won’t be addressing the specific dollars in question. Once you go down that path, you’re accepting their premise: that there is a role for the government in at least partially funding the renovation of a private company’s venue. Not that they don’t do so occasionally – they do – but they shouldn’t, and every time we have the chance to debate this issue, we shouldn’t let the opportunity pass by.

Continue reading at http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2010/11/from-running-bases-to-running-our-lives.html

[jfd1776]

Now that Illinois has elected impeached ex-gov Rod Blagojevich to a full term as governor, the special interests are lining up with their hands out... The Cubs wasted no time in asking for $300 million.

[PGalt]

Get lost, Cubbies. It’s 2010. Wake up. Time to stand or fail on your own.

Defund all collectives.

[skinkinthegrass]

IMO..really not surprised; Cincinnati Bunglers did it, too.
...doin' it for years...decades.