Most readers of the Gem State Patriot aren’t avid sports fans, and few will lose sleep over the fact that multimillion-dollar athletes owe income taxes in every state and city where they play. But here’s the hidden story: professional sports teams spend staggering sums on accountants and compliance staff just to navigate the tangle of tax codes across fifty states and dozens of municipalities. Just like every business big and small, has to devote resources to figuring out their taxes. The process at all levels is to complex which makes it easier for the “tax man” and harder on the everyday citizen.
A recent Forbes article and a report on Fox Business highlighted California’s so-called “Jock Tax,” which hits athletes whenever they play in the Golden State. For Super Bowl participants, the tab can be astonishing. Take the example of Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold. Because the Super Bowl was played in Santa Clara, California, his tax bill wasn’t based merely on the one-game bonus—roughly $178,000—but also on the proportion of his annual salary tied to “duty days” spent in California. For top-tier athletes, that allocation can produce a California tax liability exceeding their actual game check. Reports estimate Darnold’s bill could run between $200,000 and $250,000—meaning he’ll owe more to California in taxes than he earned for winning football’s biggest prize. Just looking at his take home pay, he would have been better off staying home.
Now, these players certainly aren’t losing money overall—the tax applies to their full-season earnings—but the symbolism is hard to miss. It’s a perfect illustration of how far progressive tax policies can reach when governments see income as an infinitely renewable resource to tap.
Which brings me to Idaho. If we ever want to host a Super Bowl here (assuming we build a $2 billion stadium first), we’d better be ready for the consequence: higher property and state income taxes on everyday Idahoans. That’s how these things always work. Just as ordinary families pay higher health insurance premiums to cover corporate cost-shifting in the medical world, taxpayers end up footing the bill for the political class’s big dreams. And as usual, government employees and legislators rarely share the burden.
Why do we keep subsidizing developers with special taxing districts like CIDs, while simultaneously raising property taxes on the people who already live here? If we’re not taxing the corporations or the out-of-state millionaires, why punish the families and small businesses that keep the lights on?
There’s a better way. States like Florida, Texas, Nevada, Tennessee—and even “the People’s Republic of Washington”—have no state income tax, and they continue to attract high-wage earners and businesses that fuel growth through property and sales taxes. Idaho could do the same if we had the vision and discipline to simplify our tax system instead of constantly carving out special favors and subsidies.
So why would anyone choose to build a business—or a life—in a state that taxes success and effort? The “Jock Tax” may seem trivial to multimillionaire athletes, but it’s emblematic of a deeper problem: when left unchecked, government will tax everything that moves, breathes, thinks, or dies.
In truth, the greatest capital America possesses is not gold, land, or technology—it’s human capital: work itself. And that’s precisely what we should tax the least.
