Why Texas and Austin Should Not Subsidize the Formula 1 Race Track

CPA and economic development expert, Richard Viktorin of Audits in the Public Interest, testifies before the Texas Senate Finance Committee on why the plan to subsidize the Formula 1 Race Track in Austin by the state of Texas is a "liar's loan."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• subsidies
• tea party
• budget cuts

[MrWoozy666]

@Rcrby525 i believe fia gt championship and rolex gt car championship are also trying to reserve spots for races in the 2012 season....f1 @ indy was alright, the track wasn't too exciting.....so I have to disagree with you... also do you have any idea how popular f1 is in other parts of the world? It's HUGE.... Austin will be a great place for the race and will attract many tourists from around the world, which will largely improve the local economy

[Rcrby525]

(continued) yet they wouldn't make one for formula one, WHAT THE FUCK!? yeah, lets keep indy the oval, run only the indy 500 and the brickyard 400 on it (nascar doesn't even need to go there anymore, the novelty wore off, just run em at ORP across town, which was designed for stock cars)

[Rcrby525]

@MrWoozy666 yes, but that's only a few weekends out of months.

now, you say NASCAR tracks are seldom used, WRONG!

when not used for race events

Racing Schools

Commercial and Movie filming (mainly car commercials)

private events (car clubs, meetings, etc)

you know, i highly doubt this track will be used that often,other then motogp and formula 1, it's going to be seldom used. it's a failure waiting to happen. go back to fucking indy, they built a mother fucking chicane for motogp

[jraymond91vette]

Viktorin is wrong on all fronts. The Trust Fund (which is where this money comes from) is set up to bring large events like this into our state. What feeds the trust fund? Taxes...collected AT THESE EVENTS. Sales tax, car rental tax, room taxes...ALL get fed back into the fund to support another event.

I find the permanent job comment funny...how many permanent jobs did Jerry Jones and Dallas get for their $32 million for the Super Bowl? Or Houston for the Final 4?

Answer is: ZERO!

[PetitionQueen]

It appears that some of the people posting here are affiliated with the F1 track or it's promotors. They're offering no counter evidence and choose, instead, to attack the messenger. Get a life boys.

[munabeanz]

Richard Viktoran has not done his research correctly, he's a pretty sloppy dude. The race track, will bring a much needed boost and dollars to the area.

[MrWoozy666]

Hes just saying that because he is a NASCAR fan. And no, he says the track will be used only once, but it will be used for many occasions, including moto gp and f1.

[Funeral4aFan]

Track=jobs

track=business

track=tourism

track=better quality of life for race-fans

track=better standing in the world area as a true "world-power."

Again, what kind of "world-power" can fund violence but not a simple race track?

[vfacundo]

@Chris Lehman is incorrect - More tax revenue will be generated from out of state, out of country tourism than from Texans. Look around, foreign made cars are already here. Is your car American made? Both of mine are. You can't blame offshoring on F1, that happened in the US long ago. You say subsidy, it's truly an incentive to geneate tax revenue for Texas. Did you give up on your military tank pitch and the deaf school children terror tactic?

[lehmanck]

@vfacundo is incorrect.

A great many attendees will be Texans who in the absence of Formula 1 would haev spent the money here on something else so thre wil be very little benefit to recoup the subsidy as proven in other cities across the globe.

Worse, subsidizing F1, the european open wheel racing league, at the expense of the American open wheel racing league provides US (Texas) tax dollars to subsidize the marketing of foreign made cars at thr expense of US auto makers and American jobs!