Bruton Smith gets details on incentives | www.charlotteobserver.com
Ok here we go with a breakdown of incentives equaling $80 million that Concord has graciously given to Bruton Smith after creating a dispute over nothing anyways. Instead we are giving money to a millionaire and a company that should already be doing most of these upgrades over the next several years anyways.
I honestly believe this dispute should have been handled much differently instead due to some incompetent leaders both with the City of Concord and Cabarrus County we are giving away money that should have been used for much more important things. Now instead of doing school upgrades and providing for our children's future we are giving that budget money away for up to the next 40 years.
City Manager Brian Hiatt called it a “unique agreement, but we're also getting unique benefits” with all the road upgrades. First off, what road upgrades since the two major highways around the speedway are U.S. 29 and NC 49. Both are not maintained by the City of Concord. Therefore, this up to $60 million that will reimburse the speedway for the road improvements through incentive grants shouldn't exist. The city is estimating that it will already cost them $15 million for the extension of the George W. Liles Parkway from Weddington Road to U.S. 29. If the city is paying for that why are they then going to reimburse Bruton Smith for that upgrade.
The Cabarrus County Convention and Visitors Bureau which already has income through the hotel and room taxes in which it uses to promote the area attractions to attract visitors and create more revenue. Why are we now telling them an exact amount they have to spend on one company to promote? How is that fair to the other businesses in the area that are not going to get the advertising like they should be equally getting from the Bureau? If Concord Mills Mall said tomorrow we are shutting down unless we start getting some more incentives equal to Bruton Smith, what would the City of Concord then do? What if all major attractions and business in Concord all got together and threatened to shut the doors and move to another city? The City of Concord has set a very bad precedent in which it could quite cost the people of this city a lot of money down the road to include jobs.
There is also some things listed that Mr. Smith has to do in the next 3 years so lets break that down and discuss why.
He has to widen and realign part of Bruton Smith Boulevard and Morehead Road south of thier current alignment. If the City of Concord wanted to do this then why didn't they just budget it to be done over the next several years? Instead we give it as an incentive and tell him he has to do this which will cost tax payers more money in the long run.
Build a vehicle/pedestrian underpass on U.S. 29 just north of the speedway. Now this has been talked about for the past several years by Mr. Smith. He was going to do this upgrade to make it safer for the race fans to cross U.S. 29. So now since it was already discussed the City of Concord decides that we will just tell him it has to be done by a time frame then we can show we are getting some demands in also to justify this $80 million incentive plan that we don't know how we are going to pay for. Oh and by the way we would like for you to build a vehicle/pedestrian underpass at the main entrance on U.S. 29 and on Morehead Road just north of Performance Drive. Then just for good measure build a vehicle/pedestrian bridge over Morehead Road south of Performance Drive. Now we can say we are getting something out of you for the city for justification purposes.
We then want you to relocate overhead utilities which will have to be done anyways to build an pedestrian overhead bridge. Sorry we just had to list it separate to show we are getting more things from you in a time frame.
Build noise buffers at the drag strip. Ok this makes a lot of sense. The noise buffers were going to be built anyways. Furthermore your talking about 2 cars that run for about 30 seconds when they make their pass. Then across the street you have 43 cars running at same time for about 6 hours. The people in that area with homes or that are getting ready to purchase in the new development being built should no they are going to here noise a couple times a year. Hello you morons you are buying property next to a race track that hosts NASCAR events and now NHRA events.
So in short the residents of the City of Concord have themselves to blame for the mess they are in. They elected their officials that allowed a few people who own or are about to own property and houses near a speedway tell them what to do about noise when they should know living by a race track you will here noise from time to time. They then allowed a man tell them what they were going to do to keep him here. Hello people that was a bluff. First off he is not going to just destroy the speeday and move it. For one the cost to do that would be greater than what he has. Second NASCAR is not going to give him a race where ever he wants to move to. The fall out for that would have been much greater than you can imagine. So why was Concord so afraid to just say no to him when they in turn said no to every department that will have a short fall in their budget the next 40 years so they can pay the $85 million in incentives.
Ok here we go with a breakdown of incentives equaling $80 million that Concord has graciously given to Bruton Smith after creating a dispute over nothing anyways. Instead we are giving money to a millionaire and a company that should already be doing most of these upgrades over the next several years anyways.
I honestly believe this dispute should have been handled much differently instead due to some incompetent leaders both with the City of Concord and Cabarrus County we are giving away money that should have been used for much more important things. Now instead of doing school upgrades and providing for our children's future we are giving that budget money away for up to the next 40 years.
City Manager Brian Hiatt called it a “unique agreement, but we're also getting unique benefits” with all the road upgrades. First off, what road upgrades since the two major highways around the speedway are U.S. 29 and NC 49. Both are not maintained by the City of Concord. Therefore, this up to $60 million that will reimburse the speedway for the road improvements through incentive grants shouldn't exist. The city is estimating that it will already cost them $15 million for the extension of the George W. Liles Parkway from Weddington Road to U.S. 29. If the city is paying for that why are they then going to reimburse Bruton Smith for that upgrade.
The Cabarrus County Convention and Visitors Bureau which already has income through the hotel and room taxes in which it uses to promote the area attractions to attract visitors and create more revenue. Why are we now telling them an exact amount they have to spend on one company to promote? How is that fair to the other businesses in the area that are not going to get the advertising like they should be equally getting from the Bureau? If Concord Mills Mall said tomorrow we are shutting down unless we start getting some more incentives equal to Bruton Smith, what would the City of Concord then do? What if all major attractions and business in Concord all got together and threatened to shut the doors and move to another city? The City of Concord has set a very bad precedent in which it could quite cost the people of this city a lot of money down the road to include jobs.
There is also some things listed that Mr. Smith has to do in the next 3 years so lets break that down and discuss why.
He has to widen and realign part of Bruton Smith Boulevard and Morehead Road south of thier current alignment. If the City of Concord wanted to do this then why didn't they just budget it to be done over the next several years? Instead we give it as an incentive and tell him he has to do this which will cost tax payers more money in the long run.
Build a vehicle/pedestrian underpass on U.S. 29 just north of the speedway. Now this has been talked about for the past several years by Mr. Smith. He was going to do this upgrade to make it safer for the race fans to cross U.S. 29. So now since it was already discussed the City of Concord decides that we will just tell him it has to be done by a time frame then we can show we are getting some demands in also to justify this $80 million incentive plan that we don't know how we are going to pay for. Oh and by the way we would like for you to build a vehicle/pedestrian underpass at the main entrance on U.S. 29 and on Morehead Road just north of Performance Drive. Then just for good measure build a vehicle/pedestrian bridge over Morehead Road south of Performance Drive. Now we can say we are getting something out of you for the city for justification purposes.
We then want you to relocate overhead utilities which will have to be done anyways to build an pedestrian overhead bridge. Sorry we just had to list it separate to show we are getting more things from you in a time frame.
Build noise buffers at the drag strip. Ok this makes a lot of sense. The noise buffers were going to be built anyways. Furthermore your talking about 2 cars that run for about 30 seconds when they make their pass. Then across the street you have 43 cars running at same time for about 6 hours. The people in that area with homes or that are getting ready to purchase in the new development being built should no they are going to here noise a couple times a year. Hello you morons you are buying property next to a race track that hosts NASCAR events and now NHRA events.
So in short the residents of the City of Concord have themselves to blame for the mess they are in. They elected their officials that allowed a few people who own or are about to own property and houses near a speedway tell them what to do about noise when they should know living by a race track you will here noise from time to time. They then allowed a man tell them what they were going to do to keep him here. Hello people that was a bluff. First off he is not going to just destroy the speeday and move it. For one the cost to do that would be greater than what he has. Second NASCAR is not going to give him a race where ever he wants to move to. The fall out for that would have been much greater than you can imagine. So why was Concord so afraid to just say no to him when they in turn said no to every department that will have a short fall in their budget the next 40 years so they can pay the $85 million in incentives.
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