Should There be Tax Breaks on Tickets?

The editorial I read was called “Tax Break on Tickets? No, thanks.” It was about how there is an amendment to the federal tax code that allows a tax deduction for donations made to UT to buy tickets. The amendment was written in the mid 1980s by the late Austin Rep., Jake Pickle, who was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and a UT alumnus. A couple years later the tax break was given to all universities but the deduction was lowered to 80 percent. It is completely insane to see that the athletic department at UT spends $210,000 on each athlete. The total amount spent on athletics annually by UT is over $100 million which is over a $50 million increase in the past six years. All of the money that is going to the athletic department alone is just appalling. Although I can see the argument here about how the money should be going into education, it seems a little biased in my opinion. There are surely plenty of people out there that think this is just fine because all they care about is watching sports. The editorial seems to be one sided and doesn't give another point of view and if someone were to disagree about the tax break money.

The Editorial Board did a good job of proposing the problem with the tax breaks but don't really give a good solution. All it says in there is that donations for season tickets shouldn't be tax deductible and that the money should be going towards educating students. The editorial gives good information about the problem at hand but doesn't talk much about how to fix the problem. It seems as if the editorial is more like a complaint and not so much of a problem that people should be aware of. The end of the editorial was left open ended when it said two Austin representatives didn't even reply to questions about a repeal of the tax break. I guess the Editorial Board just wanted people to become aware of this topic and that's it. Because the only feedback this editorial got was a slash back at the newspaper about how Texas newspapers are exempt from the state sales tax. In the end, the problem is no one wants to pay taxes and the people that don't just make others mad. I would say this editorial did a good job of convincing me that there should not be tax breaks on tickets. Even if I do like UT sports, I still think that the money should be distributed between the sports department and towards education.

You can read the editorial at the Austin American Statesman.