New Yorkers are aghast that the Buffalo Bills stadium deal, which will fill the pockets of a wealthy NFL team owner with their tax dollars, is in the state budget the Legislature just adopted.
But it’s not exactly a rogue element.
The stadium giveaway is really a metaphor for the entire $220 billion package, whose defining feature — other than its enormous price tag — is the degree to which it’s packed with subsidies for well-heeled business interests and big labor unions.
No doubt the stadium deal is a useful Exhibit A. Economists on both the right and left agree taxpayers are typically the losers in such publicly funded sports-stadium arrangements.