Formula One race organizers have agreed to pay the city's contribution into a trust fund necessary to secure $25 million annually in state funding. Race organizers had already agreed to pay the first installment of $4 million, but they are now agreeing to pay subsequent installments as well. As we explained last week, the Circuit Events Local Organizing Committee asked the city to deposit an estimated $4 million annually into a Major Events Trust Fund that would help pay for costs related to F1 events. City contributions to the fund, race organizers argued, would be made up by increases in tax revenue expected from the influx of tourists for events at the Circuit of the Americas, now under construction in southeastern Travis County.
In a separate development, F1 organizers have launched a new website to tout the purported benefits of F1 races and the multimillion dollar racetrack facility. Among the advantages listed on AustinF1Facts.com is this one: "Funding to bring F1 to Austin comes from revenues generated by the events themselves, at no cost to the city or local taxpayers."
Update at 4:59 pm:
City council member Mike Martinez just posted this to his Facebook profile.
Breaking: just finished a meeting with Richard Suttle Jr. and the Local Organizing Committee has agreed to pay all 10 years of the $4mil matching funds to qualify for the Major Events Trust Fund. No Austin taxes at all will be used, leveraged, borrowed....what ever. It's all private funding. But we still get the huge benefit of the sales tax from the site.
