aaf192020 said 🔗
Craziness! Leave it to a republican governor of California to start this tax after Jordan and the Bulls beat my Lakers in 1990..... These are undisputable facts no matter who's feelings get hurt.
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The Jock Tax dates back to the 1960s
The concept wasn’t new: California had been levying taxes on visiting athletes since at least the mid-1980s and netted ~$2.5m in 1990 alone. Wisconsin and Ohio had jock taxes, too.
Cullerton doesn’t remember exactly how he heard about the jock tax — perhaps he read a news story about the Bulls’ California taxes — but he was inspired to make a “defensive move.”
“If they’re taxing Michael Jordan,” Cullerton told The Hustle, “but we’re not taxing Magic Johnson, it’s not fair.”
That summer, Illinois passed a bill that taxed visiting athletes, only if those athletes hailed from a state that also had a jock tax. The law, which garnered publicity, was dubbed “Michael Jordan’s Revenge.”
An onslaught of jock taxes followed over the next few years.
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