Iraq War Supplemental Allows D.C. to Raise Taxes for Baseball Stadium

Taxpayer Group Urges Members of Congress to Strip the Provision before Passage

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the nation’s leading taxpayer advocacy organization, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), called on members of Congress to strip a provision in the Iraq War Supplemental Budget request allowing the District of Columbia to raise taxes to finance a new baseball stadium.

The purpose of doing a supplemental budget request is to finance emergency spending. In this specific case, the supplemental will fund the ongoing War in Iraq and broader initiatives for the War on Terrorism. Yet, Section 6007 of the supplemental includes a provision allowing the District of Columbia to raise and spend its own local funds for a new baseball stadium, including a ballpark fee.

“In no way, shape, or form should Washington, D.C.’s baseball stadium be included in a wartime supplemental budget request,” said Grover Norquist, president of ATR. “But to add insult to injury, the supplemental includes a provision allowing the District to raise taxes to finance the stadium. This provision needs to be stripped out of the supplemental immediately. We are calling on every member of Congress to do what is right for taxpayers and to end this shell game immediately.”