With apologies to the Sugar Hill Gang, still gobsmacked by the sophistry surrounding the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

The local Knight Ridder outlet does a good job today teasing out a few odd wrinkles in the deal. Bottomline, the city of Charlotte was going to do anything, anything at all to get the Hall. Naturally, NASCAR took advantage of that to the point where NASCAR bears no risk in this endeavor and has a few ancillary sweetners as well. The office complex it can opt to build next to the Hall with city-provided parking and the option it now holds on valuable land across the street are two big hunks of candy.

More from Naysayer-in-Chief Hood:

The city of Charlotte is about to have a new government-funded tourist attraction – the NASCAR Hall of Fame – but it won’t cost local residents any new taxes, say the city and county officials who favor the deal. That’s because most of the cost, $118 million out of $155 million for the museum and attached facilities, will come from higher taxes levied on hotel stays.

Not only did I see this argument in print and broadcast coverage of the Hall of Fame announcement, but I also heard it in person from supportive politicians at a John Locke Foundation Headliner Luncheon Tuesday in Charlotte. But with respect, to suggest that hotel taxes do not cost local residents anything is fundamentally to misunderstand the concept of tax incidence. …

In the hotel-tax case, many decisions about lodging are made in a highly competitive atmosphere. A difference in hotel bills of a few dollars may not seem like much, but in bulk it can make or break a deal to attract a gathering or weekend getaway. When hotel prices rise, some visitors won’t change their behavior at all. Others will choose to pay the higher price but then cut back on other expenditures during the trip, such as meals or entertainment. Still others will decide to go elsewhere.

Thus, those who actually bear much of the cost of a higher hotel tax in Charlotte aren’t from far away. They are local business owners and employees, in hotels as well as other industries catering to visitors. Think about it this way: hotel taxes at the local level are akin to national governments taxing their exports. Does anyone really believe that increasing the cost of American exports via taxation wouldn’t reduce the volume of exports, thus harming the companies and employees involved in manufacturing and shipping them? Charlotte is in a highly competitive market for business or pleasure travel, a market now based on quick price comparisons on the Internet.

And let’s say it one more time, the 15.5 percent hotel-motel tax in Charlotte will be the highest rate on the East Coast. There is no universe in which that tax does not have a negative impact on visitors coming to town and spending the night. This tax is the very definition of an avoidable tax. Do not sleep in Charlotte and you do not pay it. How everyone associated with this NASCAR deal ignores this fact — along with others — is amazing.

Then again, maybe not. When you set out to do anything, you end up doing anything.