San Bernardino County is a red county. While it was not always the case historically, this sprawling 
Inland-Empire County has become a bastion of conservatism. This is evidenced by the significant partisan advantage that Republicans have in terms of the delegations to Washington, D.C., and to the State Capitol. But nowhere is this GOP influence felt more than on the local Board of Supervisors. On that board, you not only have a dominant Republican Super-Majority, but Bill Postmus, the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors is also Chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. Postmus has been a friend for many years, and his Chief of Staff, Brad Mitzelfelt, is the San Bernardino Correspondent for the FlashReport! So I was quite surprised to read in the newspaper a scheme that doesn’t sound very conservative at all…
I cannot tell you how disturbed I was to read an article in the San Bernardino County Sun newspaper that, if accurate, makes it sound like the Republican County Board of Supervisors is seriously considering spending the better part of a million taxpayer dollars to become a ‘major sponsor’ of a local NASCAR California Speedway. In return for giving this private for-profit speedway a public subsidy, the ‘taxpayers’ would get back in return various promotional goodies such as ‘naming rights’ to a food and entertainment venue within the speedway, there will be advertisements for the county on broadcasts, and — the best part – the logo of the county will be cut right into the grass at the speedway! There is also a transaction taking place where 1,000 or so tickets are made ‘available’ to the county at the speedway (I guess we will need a new county commission to determine which taxpayers in the county get these tickets, which hopefully are very good at roughly $700 a piece).
All of these enticements may be great for a private company that would make such an investment with their limited resources, to market their products or services. Of course a private company would have to decide whether it was a good expenditure of funds as the roughly $700,000 cost of the sponsorship would cause them to have to raise the price of their products, or perhaps cut into the bottom line for the owners of the company.
But we are talking about public officials voting to use public money to subsidize a private venture, in return for "PR value" for — county government?
It is my hope that all of the Supervisors in San Bernardino County will pause before casting this vote, and ask themselves about the proper role for government, and whether taking tax dollars and using them to pay a for-profit racetrack in return for PR value for county government is a legitimate use for tax dollars.
There is some counter-point in the article about the poor appearance of the subsidy going to the NASCAR track, and the county receiving tickets. I think that this counter-point misses the point. It is one thing for Supervisors to use their positions to encourage private sector support and sponsorships for things that bring positive economic value to the county. But it is violative of the entire GOP philosophy to outright ‘gift’ taxpayer dollars to a for-profit venture like this.
There is a dangerous ‘slippery slope’ to this funding, because if it is determined that taxpayer dollars can appropriately be used to finance a NASCAR race-way, it really opens the door for a lot more abuses of taxpayer dollars.
This is one of those votes that will define these politicians for a lifetime. Hopefully they will do the right thing, and vote down this public subsidy. Let McDonalds or Pep Boys have their logo in the grass.
(* My facts for this piece from from a newspaper story, as I wanted to post this piece before the vote today. I invite any Supervisor out there to submit a rebuttal or a correction if my facts are wrong.)
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