The Concord City Council is full of morons. The council voted unanimously to direct staff to come up with a package of tax incentives for billionaire Bruton Smith and his $60 million drag strip.
Thus Concord is at exactly the point it should have tried to avoid at all costs: Treating one taxpayer — who happens to be a billionaire — fundamentally differently than other taxpayers. Why is this so hard for local officials to understand?
It is simply not acceptable for local officials to “reward” or “payback” or in Mayor Scott Padgett’s noxious phrase show how “proud” they are of any corporate entity by handing them sacks of public dollars. In this case, $2.4 million.
The whole problem with the drag strip was that its noise would negatively impact neighbors, not an intractable problem. Now the council has made things many times worse, negatively impacting Smith’s neighbors by taxing them to pay him. It is completely insane.
I really am beginning to doubt the efficacy of elected government, at least in so many of our local bodies who are populated by people who have no idea what their primary mission might be.
Here’s a hint: It is not handing millions in taxpayer dollars to billionaires.
