Last week the Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee considered SB 1111, authored by Dallas Democrat Royce West, which would allow Dallas Co. voters to levy a new local car rental and hotel tax to build a massive new football stadium fondly desired by the Dallas Cowboys. There was the usual unquestioned blather about private-public partnerships, economic development, and increased tourism.
The Cowboys were represented by Chief Operating Officer Stephen Jones (son of owner Jerry), who thanked “Senator Royce” and brought along a PR videotape as unctuous as it was misleading, declaring that much of the project would be privately funded and the taxes would be paid by nonresidents (a canard immediately refuted by spokesmen for Enterprise Rent-a-Car and the Texas Hotel and Motel Association, both of whom the committee dismissed as impertinent party poopers). The high point of Jones’ videotape was the announcement that any new stadium (location TBA) would have a retractable roof, “so God can watch his team ride back to glory.”
The committee hooted a bit, San Antonio’s Jeff Wentworth remarked jokingly, “I’m not going to vote against a bill that obviously God has endorsed,” and Dallas Co. Judge Margaret Keliher testified, apparently seriously, “I come to support this bill and keep God’s team in Dallas County.” Dallas Co. voters had better get ready for a flood of corporate snake oil; with the endorsement of the entire Dallas delegation, the bill was sent to the pro forma local and consent calendar.
In other theological news, the Cowboys’ Alamodome summer training camp contract with San Antonio is threatened by an unexpected conflict in 2004: a national convention of the Church of God.
This article appears in April 4 • 2003.
