Taxpayers may be spending $1 billion to reward Steve Ballmer for buying a sports team.

"Billionaire Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers in August for $2 billion, but he could write off as much as half of that amount in taxes by 2030, according to an analysis by the Financial Times.

A tax break for owners of sports franchises would let the ex-Microsoft CEO claim about $1 billion of the team's purchase price from the taxable income he makes over the next 15 years, said the report, published Sunday in the London newspaper (paywall, registration required)."

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Report-Steve-Ballmer-Could-Claim-1B-in-Tax-Write-Offs-For-Buying-Clippers-280466752.html

This may happen, mind you - Ballmer has not yet actually availed himself of the option, so this story is about the Satanic injustice in the tax code, not a slam at Ballmer. Yet.

Nonetheless, it does give one visions of guillotines and red-starred berets when you realize that such "incentives" exist against a backdrop of Republicans insisting the government doesn't have the money to provide food stamps, put books in schools, or keep bridges from falling down.

I would urge Steve Ballmer not to avail himself of this tax option. The man is already a billionaire and has nothing to gain but ego points from making another billion dollars, and it would be frankly outrageous to put his sports business on the American taxpayer dole to a ten-figure tune. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in the tax code as well. The option simply should not exist.