California lawmakers pen letter urging colleges, universities to get to paying their athletes
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CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITIES SHOULD GET TO PAYING ATHLETES, LAWMAKERS SAY
California Sens. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, and Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, co-authored SB 206, the 2019 law that permits collegiate athletes to enter into Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) agreements to financially benefit from their play. That law went into effect in January 2023.
On Wednesday, Skinner and Bradford released a letter, along with bill co-sponsors Ramogi Huma of the National College Players Association and antitrust economist Andy Schwarz, to California colleges and universities urging them to take advantage of the law by entering into direct NIL agreements with their players. Currently, universities aren’t really taking advantage of this, they wrote.
“To date, most NIL deals are being made directly between commercial entities — such as a sports drink or sports apparel company — and college athletes. Or, the NIL deals are being made between NIL collectives, i.e. wealthy boosters, and student athletes,” they wrote.
They wrote that SB 206 goes beyond commercial entities and collectives.
“For example, under SB 206, California colleges and universities could enter into a sports apparel or sports memorabilia deal with their student athlete and the athlete would be paid directly by the college for the college’s use of the athlete’s name, image, or likeness on the college-issued apparel or memorabilia,” they wrote.
They wrote that the letter is being released ahead of national recruiting early signing windows opening on Nov. 13 (for most sports) and Dec. 4 (for football).
“I strongly urge California schools to make full use of SB 206 to stay competitive in college sports, especially now that other states are copying California and allowing their schools to make direct NIL deals with their student athletes,” Skinner said in a statement accompanying the letter.
TRUMP PROPOSAL WOULD BENEFIT WEALTHIEST CALIFORNIANS, STUDY SAYS
Via David Lightman...
Donald Trump’s proposal to repeal the limit on state and local tax deductions from federal income tax would mean a huge tax cut for the wealthiest taxpayers, a new study has found.
“The biggest winners would be high-income households who live in high-tax states, such as New York, Connecticut, and California,” said the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center’s Howard Gleckman.
The 2017 tax law imposed a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, which had been unlimited. That limit has been felt in California, a higher tax state, more than in most places.
Trump has said during his presidential campaign the cap should be lifted.
“I will turn it around, get SALT back, lower your taxes and so much more,” he said on his Truth Social website last month.
The tax center said in its new analysis that doing that “would cut 2025 taxes by an average of more than $140,000 for the highest-income 0.1 percent of families but provide little or no help to low- and middle-income households.”
People making $430,000 or more “would enjoy nearly three-quarters of the benefit of Trump’s proposal,” the study said.
The report said that households with incomes of $63,000 or less would on the average get no tax cut.
Middle income earners, or those making between about $63,000 and $113,000, would get some help from a repeal–an average 2025 tax cut of $30.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Early in the pandemic as we struggled to secure COVID testing, Trump allegedly sent rare testing equipment to Putin for his personal use. It’s shameful that he prioritized a Russian dictator over American citizens. This behavior is unacceptable and I will call him out.”
- Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, via Threads.
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