Bill could make rich MLB richer

Want to make George Steinbrenner a richer than rich man? Well, your chance is coming in September, and Congress and the administration appear more than ready to make your dream come true.

Having passed both the House and Senate, the tax legislation in question includes a provision that will allow professional sports teams to write off the full value of their franchises over a 15-year period. Television and radio contracts are part of that writeoff.

The end result is that the teams with the greatest value and the biggest TV deals get the biggest write-offs.

Ah, yes, more for the Yankees and Red Sox.

You thought their ticket prices were high? Well, now add a few bucks for the poor owners and their write-offs that will be part of your taxes to pay for the money the government won’t be collecting from them.

Wait! There’s more.

Lehman Brothers, an investment banker, was quoted in the New York Times this week saying the tax break will add 5 percent to the value of the franchises. Not just a tax break, but also a way to increase the sale price of teams without having to do one thing for the fans or the team’s performance.

What a country.

That windfall is, according to Lehman Brothers, expected to be $2 billion for MLB owners.

MLB commissioner Bud Selig, the former owner of the Brewers (his ownership is in trust now, wink, wink,) fought the IRS for the right to deduct nearly all of the player salary costs when he ran the team. He won that battle, but the IRS later reduced that figure to 50 percent for the future.

MLB has long gouged the taxpayers with the false argument that paying for new stadiums is a good deal for cities. Not so, and folks have started to figure that out.

So, MLB needed another way to let the taxpayers pay for their riches, and this is it.

MLB had their lobbyists roaming the halls of Congress to get the votes. The baseball pork barrel went flying through, hidden with other hand out clauses in the tax bill.

If you sell your house, you pay taxes on the profit made.

When MLB owners sell their franchises, they will have already written off the full value if owned for 15 years, will have written of 50 percent of the player salary costs and will deduct all the costs affiliated with the sale of the team. And, their team will be worth more.

Unbelievable.

Then again, the current administration’s race to make the rich richer is headed by the man who once owned part of the Texas Rangers, so there are plenty of good old boys to pander to.

The gouging goes deeper, the snake oil sales roll on and we get to pay the bill.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.