Cabarrus County and the City of Kannapolis will learn tomorrow afternoon whether the Local Government Commission approves their plan to use $168 million in tax-increment finance (TIF) bonds for greenways, a parking garage, and other projects related to David Murdock’s already subsidized North Carolina Research Campus.
County Commissioners seem to have learned one lesson already from the debate about TIFs. If you’re going to borrow money, ask the voters. Cabarrus and the City of Concord will seek voter approval for bonds that would pay some of the $60 million in incentives ($30 million each) they offered Bruton Smith to keep the Lowes Motor Speedway and Smith’s desired drag strip in Concord. Cabarrus will also seek a tax increase. Smith has said he has commitments from the state for another $20 million. Federal money might also be redirected to road and bridge projects related to the race tracks, thanks to Rep. Robin Hayes.
“Typically a new project cannot be advanced without delaying some other project in the same area,” Ritchie Hearne, an engineer for the district covering Cabarrus County, said in an e-mail.
Next time, the governments should just promise to buy a portion of the tickets each year and mail them to taxpayers, that way if they vote for the bonds, they actually get something in return.
