Texas Taxpayers Finance Formula One Auto Races as Schools Dismiss Teachers

Texas Taxpayers Finance Formula One Auto Races as Schools Dismiss Teachers  -Bloomberg

Texas, which may balance its budget by firing thousands of teachers, plans to commit $25 million in state funds to Formula One auto racing each year for a decade.
Four years after motorsports’ most popular series left the U.S., Texas investors including Clear Channel Communications Inc. co-founder B.J. “Red” McCombs are building a 3.4-mile (5.5-kilometer) track to bring the event to Austin. Comptroller Susan Combs has agreed to pay $25 million for races through 2022, a subsidy questioned by critics and lawmakers as the state cuts costs to close an estimated $15 billion two-year deficit.
“I don’t understand why 25 people in Austin could not put up $1 million each if they thought this was a good opportunity instead of the state making a $25 million commitment,” said Senator Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican. “The developers should find the money through private sources.”


As many as 100,000 teachers in Texas may be fired because of spending cuts to cope with the state’s budget crisis, according to Moak Casey & Associates, an Austin-based education consultant. For $25 million a year, the state could pay more than 500 teachers an average salary of $48,000.
“I have to wonder why the state of Texas is all over funding for this racetrack and not the school-funding crisis,” said Ewa Siwak, 44, who teaches German in the Austin Independent School District and whose job at Bowie High School is being cut. “Tax dollars for education should be a higher priority.”

Update:

Lawsuit filed against state Formula One subsidy

By Eric Dexheimer AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 9:33 p.m. Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Published: 9:29 p.m. Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Two Austin-area educators and an accountant went to court Wednesday seeking to prevent Texas Comptroller Susan Combs from paying a $25 million public subsidy to local organizers of the Formula One race planned for next June.
Their lawsuit, filed in state District Court in Travis County, claims Combs promised the money illegally and asks that any payment from the state to the promoters be halted.
The plaintiffs, Austin teacher Ewa Siwak , Del Valle school board Trustee Richard Franklin and accountant Richard Viktorin are represented by Bill Aleshire, a former Travis County tax collector and Commissioners Court judge who has been a vocal opponent of using taxpayer money to support the project. Viktorin represents a group called Audits in the Public Interest and also has been critical of using the trust fund money for the race.
Their lawsuit "strikes at the heart of the issue of whether Formula One even qualifies under the requirements of Texas law for such public funding," Aleshire said in a written statement.

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/lawsuit-filed-against-state-formula-one-subsidy-1556360.html