NASCAR is Gone!

Here is the good news:

A Florida-based racetrack developer has abandoned plans for a $368 million NASCAR speedway near Bremerton, where local opposition to the project was fierce.

Unfortunately there is some bad news as well. First, the governor and the legislature did not immediately say no to this project. Second, the developer may be back looking for another handout:

But the company said it will look for other track sites in the state and might come back to the Legislature with another proposal in the future.

“We think the Northwest is still a great opportunity for the company,” said ISC spokesman Lenny Santiago. “Hopefully, we can find a way to make this project work.”

….

But the company said Monday it had been told more changes were needed for the legislation to move forward.

“These additional changes to the legislation were unacceptable and would have had a significant negative impact on our financial model for the speedway development,”

Well, there is an easy way to make the project work: ISC can change their financial model and bring enough of their own money to fund the whole thing. What seems pretty obvious is that they do not have a business plan that will attract enough investors to move ahead with out a public handout. Prove me wrong and I’ll support them 100%.

ISC officials argued that the track, by drawing tens of thousands of visitors from out of state, would generate more than enough additional tax revenue to cover the state’s share of the project.

Except that those tax revenues should not be used to fund this project. Rather, they should be used to reduce the overall tax rate on Washington citizens.