Would you rather pay for road or track?

Published 2:00 pm Wednesday, July 27, 2005

The issue, if we might appropriate the name of a

popular motoring magazine, is one of “road and track.”

It is certainly a timely coincidence that brings both the controversy over a higher state gasoline tax, and plans for a NASCAR race track in South Kitsap – to be at least partially funded by public dollars – to the news pages these days.

As reported in the regional media, gas tax foes mustered more than 400,000 signatures seeking to repeal by initiative this fall a tax that would fund highway improvements statewide. Meanwhile, closer to home, representatives from the Kitsap Economic Development Council and the International Speedway Corporation will be on hand today at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon (11:30 a.m. at Wing Point) to discuss plans to bring NASCAR racing to Kitsap County. ISC has announced its intention to put an 80,000-seat track near the Bremerton Airport; the facility is being touted as a potential economic boom to the county.

Conspicuous by its omission so far is the size of the public subsidy – er, “partnership” – that the ISC will try to exact from the county and state to build the track. Spurned last year by officials in Snohomish County, backers are being more circumspect in their presentation; several have pledged only that the track will require “no new taxes.”

The operative word there is “new,” and the proposal raises serious issues for public officials who may be asked to dole out millions in existing revenues for a race track, even as voters threaten to put the kibosh on their own highway system.

Leaving aside other issues raised by the NASCAR proposal – impact on traffic, quality of life, community identity – we should all remember that the ISC could write a check tomorrow to pay for the whole track, every square foot of asphalt. The corporation is rolling in money, reporting 20 percent revenue growth and record earnings for the second quarter of the fiscal year, according to a report by the Auto Channel. For the six months ending May 31, the ISC’s total revenues were reported at $336.9 million, up from $261.8 million prior.

But paying one’s own way isn’t how big-time sports works anymore. The corporate strategy is to pick a location for a track or stadium, and then get enough local fans fired up to support a tax hand-out for construction, with the promise that they’ll eventually get their money back from rubes who roll in from out of state and throw their money around come race or game weekend.

Or maybe we have the fans and the rubes turned around.

There was a time when “economic development” meant adding jobs in the manufacturing sector, employment with wages that people could live and support a family on. Jobs that brought a sense of contribution and purpose. What does a race track promise? A handful of year-round positions to maintain the facility, and a new boom in the service industry? More opportunities for restaurant work and T-shirt vendors – is that good use of the county’s industrial land?

Ask yourself: If Washington voters repeal the gasoline tax for highways – heck, even if they don’t – should our county and state officials really be spending public money courting NASCAR?

Maybe we should just cancel the race.