This N&O editorial presents a fairly balanced viewpoint on the Raleigh Convention Center’s grand opening. The event, however, does inspire a couple of additional questions.
First, the RCC is promised to be a "premier meeting spot in the Southeast, attracting attention and dollars," as Mayor Meeker put it. If that is true, Mayor, then why was $221 million in taxpayer handouts necessary? Seems to me if this were such a great investment, private interests would be lined up battling to get a piece of the pie. The economic reality is that whenever an "investment" such as this requires taxpayer subsidies, a red flag should immediately go up.
Secondly, if the Convention Center is a success, when will the investors who ponied up that $221 million (taxpayers) receive their money back? Or at the least, when will tax rates be lowered to help offset their investment? After all, its only fair to reward the investors, right?
First, the RCC is promised to be a “premier meeting spot in the Southeast, attracting attention and dollars,” as Mayor Meeker put it. (I thought you were talking about Red Clay Citizen. ;)
Our RCC already is!
Dr. Sanera at Locke has a great piece on the money pit…errr convention center:
http://www.johnlocke.org/press_releases/20080904412.html
I KNOW he’s not talking about Red Clay Citizen when he says:
“The New RCC promises to be a money pit of gigantic proportions.”
Convention Center is by and large paid for by hotel and meals taxes.
1. Tax should have been sunsetted as planned years ago.
2. Vote should have been taken.