Tamworth Race Track Owners Retain Edge in Senate
Dan Gorenstein, 2005-05-05
The state
senate has killed a plan supporters say would have restored local
oversight to the regulation of private race tracks.
New Hampshire
Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports.
A
rough transcript (not word for word accurate):
The
Senate vote may put an end to a controversial debate that has raged for
the better part of a year.
The
issue first came up in 2004 after the Legislature passed a bill that
reduces towns authority to regulate certain automobile tracks.
The
law came in the middle of contentious negotiations between the town of
Tamworth and a developer who wanted to build a membership-only race
track.
Some
in Tamworth believe the company Club Motor Sports International pulled a
fast one, by hiring lobbyists to push through a vague bill that allowed
the company to bypass local control.
To
add fuel to the fire media reports show the developer made political
contributions to five senators that sponsored the original bill.
This
year, the House overwhelmingly supported House Bill 90, a bill that
would have rolled back the clock and returned power to local
communities.
Democratic
Senator Maggie Hassan supported HB 90.
She
says she believes last year's law sends the wrong message.
1:50
I honor this senate, and this legislature, I do not want there to be a
perception that businesses can come to the legislature to do end-runs
around localities.
Several
Senators framed the debate in terms of how their vote would appear to
the public.
Some
like Hassan, suggested passing HB 90 would definitively state the
Legislature wasn't open for business.
But
other Senators like Raymond Republican Jack Barnes were concerned about
what business people would think.
Barnes
told his colleagues he didn't know which way to vote on the issue until
he found out Club Motor Sports has sunk over four million dollars into
the project.
3:02
...to stiff somebody for four million, one hundred thousand dollars, we
should be ashamed of ourselves if we do that. b/c if I was a businessman
out there, thinking about coming into Raymond, trying to get people to
come to Raymond, how in the world do I entice somebody to come in, when
we are going to turn around and say the hell with you....3:40 I ask you
to think as a businessman having invested all that money. Thank you.
But
Republican Senator Joseph Kenney, who represents Tamworth, questioned
the business acumen of Club Motor Sports.
T.24
8:30
I respect the developer and how much money he's put into the project.
He's provided some jobs in the area. He's provided a lot of hope for the
area, but when it comes right down to it, there's been some bad advice
that's been shared in the last year...they knew House Bill 90 was
coming...that they were going to repeal SB 458. So if you understood
that as a developer, and you knew that May of last year, would you have
spent 2 million dollars?
But
lurking behind the heated words about promoting business and influence
peddling was the question of local control.
Often
it is the GOP that leaps to the defense of local control.
But
what made HB 90 different than other local control debates was that it
divided Senate Republicans.
Four
Senate Republicans cast votes for HB 90 in the name of local control.
That
left 12 who opposed the measure.
But
Senator Bob Flanders says it's not because he's against local control.
2:49
I questioned the selectmen, did you have an opportunity to put in
warrant articles, did people ask you to put in warrant articles, the
answer was no, no, no. so they had their opportunity. Local control is a
town meeting. That's what local control is...so we didn't do anything
against local control. And I will tell you know, if anything comes in
the future that hurts local control, I will support local control.
Senator
Kenney, one of the four Republicans who did support HB 90, agrees with
Flanders to a point.
Last
year's race track law does not erase Tamworth's oversight.
8:59
was total local control lost? No. was partial local control lost? Yes.
And I think their belief there was enough local control to regulate this
facility. But anytime we erode municipal measures...than we are taking
away kind of our characteristics of small town government and the small
communities that we live in.
Even
with HB 90 dead, Club Motor Sports still must secure a variety of local
permits, and work out a noise ordinance.
For
NHPR News, I'm DG.
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