First Ohio legislators proposed increasing the handouts for the entertainment industry through the special interest motion picture tax credit. Now, they’re proposing giving away more money for large sporting events. Any guess as to who would be footing that bill? That’s right, you, Ohio taxpayers.

The current Sporting Event Grant Program is bad enough, and allows a county or municipality to receive state taxpayer dollars to host a national or international sporting event. For example, residents of Toledo, Southeastern Ohio, and elsewhere in the state helped Columbus host the 2018 NCAA Women’s Final Four in late March. I wonder if residents in Southeastern Ohio think that was a good use of their tax dollars or if they would have preferred the money be spent on education or repairing crumbling infrastructure.

The current program is capped at $1 million for a county or municipality per year, but proposed changes being considered by the legislature would get rid of the limits, meaning cities could get even more than $1 million per year in taxpayer dollars. This means even more money being spent on sports and entertainment that most of us will never benefit from and less money being spent fixing our roads, repairing our water and sewer lines, or educating our children.

Taxpayers’ hard-earned money is already being wasted on these special interest handouts that by-and-large only go to Ohio’s largest cities that are well able to finance these events. And increasing the giveaways means Ohio legislators will either have to cut spending or increase taxes across the state, just so one community can benefit from hosting a tournament.

These events, while fun, exciting, and a boost to a local economy, do not benefit all Ohioans and typically only benefit Ohio’s largest cities – home field advantage for sure. So let’s call goaltending on the big cities, and let them fund these efforts with their own tax dollars and keep state tax dollars focused on building a strong Ohio.

Quinn Beeson is the economic research analyst with The Buckeye Institute’s Economic Research Center.