June 16, 2006
Sewer of Corruption (XVI)
* The Tacoma News-Tribune reports that Democratic Reps. Adam Smith and Norm Dicks are lobbying the state legislature to provide financial support for the proposed NASCAR racetrack in Kitsap County. Curiously, James France, the businessman behind the racetrack proposal and an overwhelmingly Republican donor, made some campaign donations to Dicks and Sen. Murray in the last few months and also annointed Dicks, Smith and Murray as "honorary board members" of the NASCAR museum.
* State government will subsidize union negotiation costs by paying the salaries of employees who leave their jobs to represent their union during negotiations.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 16, 2006
10:54 AM | Email This
1. Norm Dick is such a political Wh-Ore. He absconded with taxpayer funds to build himself a monument in Bremerton. Now he wants the Norm Dicks raceway too. The association of his name with boondoggles will serve to remind people of how we got screwed by Norm Dicks.
2. the funny thing about this whole NASCAR racetrack is that some other track would have to give up a race to this track and somehow I don not think that is likely considering that Washington has such rainy weather and lets face it NASCAR fans are there to see high speed races.
3. In another News Bufoon article “City Plans Road Map to Repairs” America's #1 Weird City touts
the City’s commitment to maintenance of ‘residential
streets.’ Specifically the City has recently
announced, “The council allocated $276,000 this year
for a continuing residential street repair program.”
However it is not clear whether a $100,000 contract
with Measurement Research Corp. to do an “inventory of
problems with the city’s residential roads” will come
out of that $276,000. So what is being said, if we
round Tacoma’s population down to 200,000, is that the
City plans to expend either 88 cents or a whopping
dollar and thirty-eight cents per resident maintaining
the roads that you live and I on. Boy what commitment!
Compare this to what the City and various departments
have committed to spend on the D Street Overpass
Puyallup Avenue to S 23rd: Tacoma Water contributes
$1,251,907 or $6.26 per City resident (you may ask
yourself, ‘what interest do utility rate payers have
in this project?). $6.75 million or $33.75 per
resident comes from the State Gas Tax (which could
also be used to fund residential street maintenance).
$38,000 in additional Gas Tax Revenue, or nineteen
cents per residence and Tacoma Power at $21,000 or ten
cents per residence, Sanitary Sewer who contributes
$37,000 or eighteen and a half cents per resident and
Storm Water at $136,000 or sixty-eight cents are
listed as “participants.” This adds up to
approximately $40 per resident being spent on this one
project alone.
4. Yet another large sporting arena project set to dupe taxpayers for funding. There are decent arguments for any city building at least one stadium for its citizen's pleasure. But when it comes down to every single businessman with a sport franchise, lining up at the government trough for another handout, it's time to expose the largesse.
Look at farm subsidies, oil subsidies, etc. Everytime big government grants big subsidy to industry they artificially support a business model that may not in fact be profitable. It's only a matter of time before a non-profitable business will collapse, saddling the taxpayers with huge debt.
If James France had any real business balls, he'd figure out a way to do the market research necessary to really understand if a NASCAR facility in Kitsap County would be profitable on its own merits. Then, if the answer is yes, he'd find the private funding needed to build the facility and launch the business. That's how it's done every day in the real world of real businesses that don't have their own personal Congressperson or Senator to grease the wheels and obtain pork subsidy.
5. "This adds up to approximately $40 per resident being spent on this one project alone."
What do you think could be motivating those politicians to spend such a disproportionate amount on that one project?
$$Corruption$$
6. I am guessing that they see it as a "photo Opportunity Project," while doing a great job at residential street maintenence has no value in that regard. It is only when the streets are utterly failing that they have any "news worthyness" so they are given short shrift. This is why it is important to work to elect neighborhood minded council members, which by the way is almost impossible when council members are elected 'at large.'
7. The Puyallup tribe continues to bribe, that is the reason for all the money for the D street project. There is just not a lot of casino money flowing from residential streets.
As for the track, Nascar is just another 'business' that has fallen into the fascist economic trap. First comes the subsidy, then the control. Idiots!
8. Funny thing about the seducing song of the politicians. NASCAR is not committing to having one of the Big Daddys of races. All the big bucks come in from the Big Thumpers, not the minor leagues.
Sure, as a new track we may get one or two of the big ones, but after that, they will take their money makers elsewhere and leave the State with the NASCAR go cart races.
Read between the lines, people; it is what they don't say that is important.
9. Total sewer of corruption
10. If those politicians and millionaires thought a racetrack would actually make money, they'd be fighting each other for a chance to invest their own money into building and owning it.
They know that they can make a lot of money if corrupt politicians, both Republican and Democrat, can be shown good reasons to pay for it with money that isn't their own. The $$million$ to be made will be in the contracts, subsidies, campaign donations, kickbacks and bribes paid for with taxpayer money.
11. The governance of the Puyallup Tribe is one of the few examples of political corruption that outshine certain of Tacoma's pols. Don't forget Piercce County government either, the Ladenburg mafia is right up there with the other two. Do the three feed each other? I suspect that they do.
12. Being OT with apologies to all- but regarding corruption- The MSM has given no play to the fact that the French Supreme Court has upheld George Soros's conviction for insider trading and stock manipulation. So much for the clean money of moveon.org. Hell, even the French think he's corrupt!
13. So now that the State is paying for negotiation costs directly, does this mean that non-members will no longer have to pay "negotiation representation fees"? Sounds logical to me...of course that probably means it won't happen.
14. i have no axe to grind with NASCAR; nor Wal Mart; but I have a long-term view; give tax breaks if it's sustainable and a net BENEFIT for taxpayers; i don't want 30-year bonds paying for a weed-grown field used for 2 seasons; same with a store; i would put long-term contract terms in contracts where if an agreed average % of profit or break-even is NOT obtained over X years, the project sponsors or owners (NOT taxpayers) pay us back for the lost revenues promised; that clause would get projecting 'experts' more conservative and distinguish between 'expected revenues' and 'actual' revenues; simple test--if any of these projects would be profitable, why aren't investors lining up to build them?!
15. Jimmie, ya gotta stop making such sense! You'll just get blasted by the loonies.
16. International Sports Corporation naturally wants to shift as much of its costs onto the taxpayers as possible, whether the speedway would be profitable without that public financing or not.
If they can get the state to pay about half the cost of construction using the sales taxes on the labor and materials used in the speedway's construction and the sales, lodging and B&O taxes generated by the spending of out-of-state visitors (taxes paid by race fans and participants, and by all people who earn profits or wages by providing goods and services to the visitors), their own profit will be bigger.
The same is true for their desire to be exempt from paying state and local property taxes (or the leasehold excise tax that takes their place when a private business leases a publicly owned facility) -- it would move about $3 million each year to their corporation's bottom line.
The same is true for their desire to be exempt from paying the tax due when forest land is converted to other uses after the owners enjoyed paying much lower property taxes on it for years.
It's natural, but not necessarily a good idea for the state and local government entities affected by their desires.
17. I am disappointed in Adam Smith, I thought he was relatively clean and Norm Dicks also. It is always better that the Government stay out of these ventures because they will invariably increase the costs by their bureaucracy that breeds inefficiency. The public has had enough subsidizing of sports - just because the NASCAR racers don't make as much as other pro-sports athletes doesn't mean we want to help them out.
I know that there will be a NASCAR track in Boardman, OR. I just wonder where the financial backing is coming from there. There is less population there to donate to the cause than on the Kitsap Peninsula.
18. JDH - The Ladenburg mafia connections cleans a lot of dirty money that is generated in and around the Puyallup Casino. The money is often filtered through Pierce County government unionized projects. A big pay-off for the Puyallups to keep the pipeline open (and grow it) was the health board smoking ban - driving more money into the hands of the Puyallups thank you Kevin 'two-bit' Phelps - what a crook!! When that ban fell through the state wide ban was pushed. A lot of useful idiots in the Lung association etc. have helped make a lot of corrupt pols and corrupt Puyallups very rich. But it is all for the children or the poor worker who had to work in a smokey restaurant not about drug and prostitution money, right, wink, wink.
It is interesting that a number of county councilman were pushing back against Johnny Pin-strip Ladenburg - but they seem to have eased off. Maybe some palms got greased or people got scared. Likely the first (and likely greased palms in the form of project money) - C. Goings is a case in point, once an idealist now a porker looking for more money for his alterered district now that South Hill was carved off and gone conservative Christian anyway. Ladenburg was grooming him for a while but Calvin may have gotten cold feet and decided on pork instead of pinstrips. Goings is poverty pimping the North Hill area now. Definately no longer an idealist. "I'll show you the bacon" should be his campaign slogan.
19. As a side note on the above note that the Federal government money grubbers are now in on the act. Some two bit magistrate at the B. of Indian Affairs or some such alphabet soup agency just 'ruled' that Indian tribes cannot pay direct payments to members. The case flowed out of the Puyallup tribe who are doling out 2k a month to each member. The jist of it is that the government unions want that money to move through the government social agencies. My bet is that the Puyallups roll over on this one because their corrupt leaders don't give a rat's a@@ about their members and this movement of money will afford them more opportunities for hide and bribe income. But it's all about the children or the 'endangered' Orca or something like that so shut up and pay your taxes.
20. A couple comments if I may:
1) In general I don't like the idea of public subsidies for any industry or sporting venue. However, in the case of NASCAR, it's damn near a no-brainer. NASCAR is almost printing their own money, and the NW is way underserved by this association.
2) The NorthWest WILL get a Cup race (the top tier NASCAR level) if a track gets built. ISC is owned by the France family, which also controls NASCAR. They haven't been spending years to get a racetrack built in the NW that would go unused or under-utilized. They are spending the same amount of time and effort to site a track in the NY/NJ area, and they'll get a race, too, if they can work it out. In the last few years, they've scheduled new races in Vegas, Kansas City, Chicago, etc, and the NW is the only major part of the country without a race nearby.
3) NASCAR would not HAVE to shift a date from another track, although that may be the likeliest scenario. But they've stated for the last several years that they are not adverse to adding another date or two to the year. My guess is that they would slot a NW race in the week immediately before or after the Sonoma race, to make it easier on the haulers, etc.
4) Boardman, Oregon is NOT getting a NASCAR track. Yes, investors are trying to build a track there... however, NASCAR has already publicly stated that they have no interest and will not sanction the track. The exception to this could be if a smaller track also built onsite was sanctioned as part of the smaller, local NASCAR circuits - similar to what hundreds of other local tracks do. The bottom line is that you will not see a Cup, Busch, or Truck race in Boardman.
As a Portland resident, I'm perpetually pissed off at the tax abatements and giveaways that our local officials are doing. But here is an opportunity that has penciled out EVERYWHERE they've gone, and yet our local braintrust put zero effort into any serious discussions with the ISC folks. Ugh.