NEW TAX LAW

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Roger Williams is a former Texas Christian University baseball player and coach. He’s a TCU trustee who attends all manner of Horned Frogs sporting events. His name is on the Fort Worth school’s baseball field.

So he’s not thrilled — and neither are many universities — that the GOP’s new tax law axes the deduction that can be taken on donations made to secure college sports season tickets.

“It’s somewhat of a shock to the schools,” said the Austin Republican, whose district includes the University of Texas at Austin. “Because this is a big part of their revenue, where you can give and the person giving can get a deduction.”

The seat licensing showdown perhaps embodied the GOP’s push to eliminate prized breaks in exchange for lower tax rates — and how that effort, approved this month, drew serious backlash.

College boosters can currently deduct 80 percent of what they pay for the right to buy season tickets. The perk can reduce their taxable income by thousands of dollars.

And it’s part of a fundraising machine that’s allowed programs to haul in tens of millions of dollars each year.

School officials worry that the loss of the deduction will dampen giving, joining other tax changes in causing a fiscal crunch that could hamper, among other things, scholarships for Olympic sports.

“When you start taking away the ability of these programs to raise money and support their programs, it’s going to be more difficult,” said Tom McMillen, president of the Lead1 Association, whose members include some 130 athletic directors across the U.S.

But there is no easy case for saving a tax break that directly benefits Americans who are wealthy enough to afford season tickets to Kyle Field and other college sports cathedrals.

University leaders appeared to put the issue down on their list of grievances about the GOP tax overhaul. Some lawmakers, who’ve long targeted the break, have been skeptical about how much pain would be felt by schools that pay millions of dollars to buy out fired coaches’ contracts.

And even Williams, who still supported the tax bill, was optimistic that deep-seated fandom would prevent the schools from taking too much of a hit.

“The schools are concerned about it. I’m concerned about it,” he said. “But I’m hoping in return that the loyalty to the schools and the commitment to their local communities will offset anybody who might be concerned or might feel that they can’t afford it.”

Big business

College sports, by any measure, are big business.

Coaches at powerhouse public schools are often the highest-paid government employees in a given state. TV deals for college football can be multibillion-dollar affairs.

And high-profile athletic departments often have eye-popping budgets.

Texas is ground zero for that largesse.

And that status comes, in part, from deep-pocketed donors. Texas A&M University, for instance, led all public schools in 2016 by receiving $75.5 million in athletics contributions, according to data compiled by USA Today. UT- Austin also neared the top with $42.2 million.

Those high-dollar stats — and the powerful people behind them — are more than enough to grab Congress’ attention.

Take Rep. Frank Lucas, an Oklahoma Republican whose district includes Oklahoma State University. Asked recently about the plan to eliminate the seat licensing deduction, the Cowboys alum said he wasn’t that familiar with the provision.

But Lucas also snapped to.

“With T. Boone Pickens Stadium at Oklahoma State, one of the nicest, state-ofthe-art facilities in America, thanks to the generosity of Mr.

Pickens and those dedicated season-ticket buyers, that’s an issue I better take a look at,” he said, shouting out the Dallas tycoon and megabooster.

The booster break did indeed get a closer look in the tax debate.

Here’s how it has worked: A new seat in, say, the Centennial Suite at UT-Austin’s football stadium costs $690 per season. But it also requires a donation of up to $5,000. And the setup is similar in other big sports. Floor seats at TCU basketball games, for instance, cost $525 per season, with a $1,000 donation.

The ticket costs are not taxdeductible.

The donations, at least 80 percent of them, are.

Athletic departments argued that the break has incentivized boosters to give, helping pay for scholarships in swimming and other non-revenue sports. They were already worried about another tax change that will impose a new levy on the salaries of schools’ highest-paid employees.

And school leaders grumbled to Congress at the prospect of that boost going away.

“Although we cannot predict donor behavior, this tax proposal will certainly impact the overall athletics budget,” said Shilpa Bakre, a UT-Austin spokeswoman.

Those arguments did not win out, though, particularly since GOPers eyed the perk’s elimination as a way to raise revenue for other parts of the tax plan that cleared Congress this month.

Special interest

A spokesman for Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, the House’s top tax writer, told the Austin American-Statesman last month that the break was the “epitome of a special interest loophole.” Williams, the Austin Republican, said he wasn’t able to make much headway on the issue.

And some lawmakers said other higher education concerns were much higher up their list.

Rep. Bill Flores is a Bryan Republican who has Baylor University and Texas A&M in his district. He said he heard from schools and boosters about the seat licensing issue.

And he agreed that he, an Aggie season-ticket holder for multiple sports, would lose under the change.

But Flores said the “No. 1, 2 and 3 issue” for him on higher education was making sure the tax bill didn’t repeal the tax-exempt status of tuition reductions used by many grad students.

He explained that he was more focused on “getting tax relief to working-class families”

— and that grad students fit into that group. He and others “who can afford the seat licenses” are on a different level, he added, and “they’re still going to buy their tickets.”

“Just because I can’t deduct part of my seat license, it doesn’t mean I’m not going to buy the seats,” Flores said. “It’s kind of a non-problem, as far as I’m concerned.”

Twitter: @tombenning

How has college booster tax break worked?

College sports boosters have long been able to deduct from their taxable income 80 percent of the donations made to secure season tickets. Here’s how the math would work out for TCU basketball fans:

Ticket Tax-deductible

Location price Donation amount

Floor $525 $1,000 $800

Courtside sections $525 $625 $500

Secs. 102/111 $275 $150 $120

Secs. 101/103/110/112 $275 $113 $90.40

Secs. 104/109/113/118 $275 $75 $60

Secs. 105/114/115/116/117 $275 $50 $50

All remaining sections $275 $0 $0

SOURCE: Texas Christian University Staff Graphic