Measure to Tax Sports Tickets for Schools Dies

A plan to raise money for school athletic programs by imposing a 3% tax on tickets for professional sporting events died Wednesday before a hostile Senate committee.

As proposed by Assemblyman Steve Clute (D-Riverside), the ticket tax would raise more than $7 million next year, 90% of which would be earmarked for recreational and competitive sports at California public elementary and secondary schools and community colleges. The remaining 10% would go to California State University sports programs.

Clute told the Senate Education Committee Wednesday that the new tax would help replace money being cut from athletic programs as the state’s budget woes trickle down to local school districts.

He and other proponents, including a spokesman for the California Teachers Assn., said San Francisco schools already benefit from a temporary local tax on tickets to baseball and football games there.

“The sports fans will understand they are paying a few cents more--on a $10 (San Francisco) Giants ticket, it’s 30 cents--to benefit children’s athletics,” said Bill Collins of the CTA.

But committee members were skeptical, criticizing Clute’s sports tax because it would benefit athletics while slighting programs for the arts, theater and music.

“We’re cutting music and art and we’re going from 30 to 35 kids in a class, and I don’t see the protection of sports as more important than the other things we are doing,” said Sen. Becky Morgan (R-Los Altos Hills).

Frederick J. Taugher--lobbyist for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers and San Francisco 49ers--also criticized the plan because it would be the first time the state imposed a tax on services or entertainment, not goods. Sports tickets are exempt from state sales taxes.

Taugher also said many professional sports teams already contribute to public coffers because they rent public facilities.

Clute bowed to the opposition and agreed to drop the tax plan but gained committee approval for putting a voluntary checkoff for school athletic programs on state income tax forms.