This isn’t a tax on rock stars, it is a tax for rock stars. But then, it’s not a tax for just any rock star, it’s for the kind who can’t make good enough music to support their habits through ticket sales. Gone are the days of selling your guitar and camping with the hippies. Kids just want to roll out of bed and make it in the big time.
The economic analysis wasn’t supposed to be out for a few more weeks, but Moogfest 2014 reportedly ran a deficit of $1.5 million. That is the same amount the festival spent on performers. Anyway, Moog has applied for $250,000 from the Buncombe County Culture and Recreation Authority for Moogfest 2015. That is the new, unelected body with the power to levy up to a seven-cent property tax to pay for, among other things, parties hosted by private businesses – I mean public-private economic engines.
I have to get angry about this, because it represents government funding one of my most special of interests. I looooooooved Moogfest, but this just isn’t fair to the homeless and starving in our community and those who would be marginalized by a rock star tax.
