Follow the Money. Transit.
Posted October 30th, 2007 at 4:50 AM by Jeff A. Taylor
Least surprising news of the year. The Save the Tax campaign raised almost $600,000. The Vote Repeal camp almost $12,000.
Among the big corporate donors to Save the Tax, Bank of America and Wachovia with $60,000 each, Duke Energy with $50,000, light rail train car maker Siemens with $50,000, and $30,000 from CATS’ partner and light rail system designer Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Neat how money taxpayers spend on the light rail line gets routed back against them. Parsons has received at least $11 million in contracts from CATS dating back to the very start of the transit plan. Siemens has sold CATS $53 million worth of light rail cars.
A few thousand dollars to keep the millions flowing is the cost of doing business for this bunch.
Most puzzling, however, is the $6000 the Carolina Panthers gave to Save the Tax. Did someone promise Jerry Richardson a streetcar in exchange for all the surface parking his tailgating fans are losing? No wonder Bill Polian had to go to Indy to win a Super Bowl, the Panther braintrust is not very bright. (Then again we knew that from recent drafts and free-agent moves.)
Better still, here is Panther president Mark Richardson and former safety Mike Minter spouting non-sense in a Save the Tax TV ad. The take-away: Minter will soon run for local office and never go to celebrities for political advice.
There will be more details to come on exactly who supports Charlotte’s $9 billion transit plan, but it should be very clear that Mayor Pat McCrory’s “grassroots” effort to Save the Tax is as artificial as a silver, plastic Christmas tree.
Bonus Observation: Don’t forget that former Parsons Brinckerhoff exec Alan Wulkan was hired by the Save the Tax campaign to help scare old people into voting for the tax. Stay classy.
Update: Steve Harrison reports that STV, the South Blvd. line’s construction manager, also gave $30,000 while McDonald Transit Associates chipped in $5,000. McDonald operates the bus system for CATS and hires its Teamster drivers.
Update II: EarthTech is another light rail contractor. The company gave $20,000 to Save the Tax.
Update III: Tom Roussey has more details on other campaign fundraising.
October 30th, 2007 at 7:22 am
The whorish relationship that has developed between big government and big business should appall anyone who believes in capitalism. Businesses don’t pay sales tax, therefore they see the transit plan as an opportunity to profit from expanding the government nipple. It is a sad day when businessmen promote socialism.
October 30th, 2007 at 7:34 am
The following thought occurred to me as I was walking in to work this morning:
Why is it that political donations to individual politicians are capped (with a max donation of $2,300, or whatever the limit is), but donations to a cause (not a political party, but a single cause) are not? On a ballot, a politician gets one checkbox next to their name; the same is true for a cause like passing a bond or voting to repeal (or not) a sales tax. Seems to me like if there was a politician here named “Vote Against Repeal”, most of the above corporations would be violating campaign funding laws.
I guess they’ve figured out that supporting a cause, which politicians you support can rally behind, is just as effective as supporting the politicians themselves. Pretty unethical, sis!
October 30th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Of course, the businesses that stand to benefit would contribute to the fear and smear campaign, but
what does that say about their HONOR?
Some are members of the Center City Partners, the bullies with the power in Charlotte, who intend to
squash the effort to stop their train!
Defending the indefensible, unfortnunately, has required blatant, bald-face LIES!!!! What does this say about the honesty in our local government?
The right of citizens to petition their government, apparently has no meaning for the despicable acts
we see to garner forces to put the “village idiots” in their place! We are supposed to “trust” our leaders to know what is best for us, and if it takes LIES, so be it!
Smart Growth/central planning/socialism, are at stake for the pro-transit cabal, and my hope is that all
with the facts- will never set foot on their train!
October 30th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Here is I hope might happen…. When employees of DUK, BoA, and Wach. see how their bosses have given this such I high priority, as they wait to see if they are going to lose their jobs this week (the folks at the banks at least), they might reflect on how many times they are shaken down for money at work: United Way (where the head of the United way in the midcarolina, Ms. Gloria Pace King makes over $425,000- about 1% of this years take) ASC etc , and then indirectly when they are told to vote for higher taxes by supporting bonds and higher sales taxes.
This is a great way for all of the cubicle dwellers in the high rises to say enough is enough. The boss won’t know how they vote, so when they get in the voting booth, close the curtin, vote no on bonds and yes for repeal, and give the boss upstairs the universal “were number 1 salute” They’ll feel better afterwords. Maybe they aren’t as stupid as their employers hope they are.
UPDATE- My heart is doing a lot better after my “after market modification” last month. Thanks to all who sent their best wishes
October 30th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Careful Chris — you’ll make our Uptown elites very uncomfortable by pointing out the alliance between big business and big government. They like to think there is no credible, consistent opposition to their unitary power structure.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:43 am
Very interesting approach, Rick. Passive aggressive voting. Might catch on.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Kinda brings new meaning to the term “wageslaves”, doesn’t it?
October 30th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
BTW, the Disturber closed the comments section of their article… but not before that supreme jackass “Danimal” took a few shots at yours truly by referring to me as “Chubby”. (And of course, the Disturber staff didn’t remove the offending posts. I guess it’s OK to make personal attacks if you’re attacking someone who has an opposing viewpoint to what the paper supports.)
Danimal, if you read this, you are cordially invited to kiss my ass… or you would be, if I weren’t afraid you might actually try to do it.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:19 am
[...] As promised, a deeper look at who gave money to the Save the Tax. In addition to the obvious ones mentioned previously, a shocking number of outfits which receive public tax dollars gave to the $595,000 campaign. Then there are the merely wired into the Uptown Crowd dollars. [...]
November 5th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
[...] Posted November 1st, 2007 at 10:18 AM by Jeff Taylor“As promised, a deeper look at who gave money to the Save the Tax. In addition to the obvious ones mentioned previously, a shocking number of outfits which receive public tax dollars gave to the $595,000 campaign. Then there are the merely wired into the Uptown Crowd dollars. [...]
November 12th, 2007 at 10:24 am
[...] Siemens gave $50,000 to the Save the Tax campaign. The company is now dangling an option to purchase rail cars at $3.5 million each in front of the city, instead of the normal price of $4 million each. To recap, Siemens got $52.5 million for the South line cars and now wants a deal to get $56 million for NE line cars. The city hesitates or questions, the purchase price jumps to $64 million. What a transparent stunt, but the city has fallen for it repeatedly in the past — in for a penny, in for pound. [...]
June 13th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
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