Joe Six-Pack and Family Might Pay the Price if Ticket Tax Idea Becomes Reality

It's hard enough already to take your family to a sporting event. Tickets for a family of four to a football game will likely run you well over $100. Parking

It's hard enough already to take your family to a sporting event. Tickets for a family of four to a football game will likely run you well over $100. Parking another $15-20. Want a snack at the game? Chalk up another $20-30, easy. A program and/or souvenir will put you back another $10-20, and that's going cheap.

At the end of the day, whether it's college or pro football, Major League baseball, catching a show at MSU's Wharton Center or a movie at a nearby theater, going to see a stock car race or tickets to the Lansing Lugnuts or West Michigan Whitecaps, taking a fun night out with the family is going to be a hefty hit to your wallet.

Now imagine another six percent increase to the tickets you need to purchase for any one of these events. That could be the plan under proposed ideas to balance Michigan's State budget, a plan commonly known as the ticket tax. While Governor Jennifer Granholm has not publically advocated such a strategy as yet, the idea originated a few years ago within the Michigan Senate and remains a potential option as the State battles through the toughest economic climate in decades.

Advocates estimate the tax would raise $87 million in state tax revenue against the projected $1.8 billion deficit anticipated for 2010. Many claim sporting or other entertainment events would be minimally impacted by the new tax as fans would not be turned away due to a minor price increase. Sure, people in luxury boxes or buying front row seats might not feel the impact of such a tax increase. But the issue cuts deeper.

Outside of the fabulously wealthy, plenty of other people would be impacted, the kind of people who have already stretched their entertainment budget to the limits. How many times have we complained about how real sports fans are being priced out of sporting events? In a state where Joe Six-Pack is struggling to keep his job as it is, when there is more to worry about than ever before — from health care to lousy real estate to getting a loan for a car or to pay for your kid's college — tacking on an additional six percent to something that actually gets that guy's mind off the troubles of the world for a couple of hours can seem downright un-American, as Tom Izzo might say.

Outside of hitting a blue collar worker where it counts, such a plan could have a wider impact on the behavior of consumers. Take, for instance, the areas surrounding ballparks. One of the biggest reasons professional sporting franchises are pursued by municipalities is not because of the love lawmakers and city officials have for a particular team; rather, the potential increase in restaurant and retail sales surrounding such a venue is tremendous. Ballparks, racetracks, movie theatres or other entertainment hubs don’t survive independently of the world around them. They reside in an economic ecosystem that has become increasingly fragile as families' budgets shrink.

Say the ticket tax does raise the estimated revenue proponents claim it will. Does that include how many fewer people will go out to the bar and play keno or some other tax revenue inducing game? Or will many people just stay home altogether and watch events on TV or cookout in the backyard while listening on the radio? It's hard to imagine any Detroit Lions fan willing to pay more for anything, let a lone an additional six percent on tickets to see the Motor City Kitties play ball. At what point does such taxation just result in people shuffling money from one entertainment option to another? Sure, it may increase tax revenue on one side, but, in effect, as the cost of entertainment goes up, it threatens revenue from already established money makers such as the lottery or casino gaming.

When such legislation was introduced a couple years ago, instant outrage from concerned citizens and industry groups effectively killed the idea in its infancy. A few years later, even in the dire situation Michigan's economy is in, a similar reaction is undoubtedly waiting to bubble to the surface. When the going gets tough, many people turn to sports to tune out the troubles of the world, and if you plan on threatening that, you better be prepared for a fight

Yes, the budget deficit in Michigan must be addressed. Likely from an array of solutions, from increasing revenue, to reforming established agencies, to cutting back on spending. The times leave us no choice. But is piling on the backs of middle class taxpayers really the way to overcome such a challenge? Like taxing cigarettes, alcohol or other products selectively, it seems a minority of citizens are being targeted to carry the burdens of the whole.

And while such a plan reeks of unfairness, the real tragedy would be elbowing a dad out of taking his son to a ballgame. Watching an event on TV just doesn’t cut it. Few memories are as dear to many of us as seeing that field of green and block S in Spartan Stadium or the wet dirt infield and grid-mown grass of the outfield at Comerica Park, live and in person, Spartan hat on head or baseball mitt in hand. Do we really want to threaten that?