CITY'S NFL PURSUIT IGNORES VOTERS' WILL.

Byline: Joel Wachs 

THE Dodgers are paying Kevin Brown $105 million to pitch about 34 games a year over the next seven seasons. The San Diego Chargers gave Ryan Leaf a record-breaking $11 million signing bonus and $6 million a year to quarterback without ever knowing how little he would contribute. And two years ago, basketball's Minnesota Timberwolves signed 21-year-old Kevin Garnett to a six-year, $125 million contract even though the entire team was purchased three years earlier for just $85 million.

Welcome to the insane world of professional sports today. It's billionaire team owners and mega-millionaire players each wanting taxpayer money to feed their insatiable hunger for yet more money.

Who pays for this? You will, whether or not you ever attend a game or buy a sponsor's product, if the City Council continues on its course toward using hundreds of millions of taxpayers dollars to help build a new football stadium at the Coliseum.

Los Angeles taxpayers thought they had drawn a line in the sand two years ago when they found out that the city was planning to spend more than $180 million to help build the new downtown Staples Arena. Loudly and clearly they voiced support for my proposed initiative that would have required voter approval before any public funds were spent on a professional sports facility.

When faced with the stark reality that the voters would never approve the diversion of their hard-earned tax money from more critical civic needs, such as new roads, better schools and increased public safety, the arena developers backed down. As a result, they will now pay for their own arena, and the taxes it generates will be used for more police officers and firefighters, libraries and parks.

Unfortunately, when given an opportunity last Tuesday to redraw that line in the sand for a new National Football League team, the City Council refused. Instead, it left the door wide open to giving hefty tax benefits to the developers who want to renovate the Memorial Coliseum.

I believe it is now time to renew the possibility of another taxpayers' initiative.

Although details of the new NFL-Coliseum proposal have been negotiated behind closed doors and are veiled in secrecy, some things are certain:

Taxpayers will be asked to use property, sales, income, utility and business taxes to finance a parking structure which will cost nearly $400 million after interest payments are added in.

There are no meaningful independent economic analyses to show that the taxpayers would really benefit from such a subsidy. Although developers typically commission ``made-to-suit'' studies promising all kinds of benefits, virtually every prominent independent economist who has studied the economic impact of stadiums in the United States has concluded that they simply do not produce the economic development or new jobs which the promoters promise.

And if the Raiders or Rams didn't do anything for the surrounding community, why would another team be any different?

The final plan will not be made public until it's too late for an independent economic analysis. It will be riddled with terms like ``no new taxes,'' ``public investment,'' and ``tax increment financing,'' all of which are nothing more than code words for hiding the true nature of the generous public subsidy involved.

The public will have virtually no time to make its voice heard.

Taxpayers will be left with a ``take it or leave it'' choice.

I say ``leave it!''

If you agree, call your City Council member and the mayor now. Tell them to skip the double-speak and refuse to spend any city funds without your prior approval. After all, isn't that the kind of community empowerment which the new City Charter was supposed to provide?