Formula One owners have bowed to Austin voters and insurgent candidate Kathie Tovo who are opposed to using public money for the Formula 1 racetrack now under construction in Austin, Texas.  Today, Formula 1 pledged to put up the entire $4 million city match – $40 million over the life of the contract – in order to receive the $25 million per year for ten years from the state of Texas.

Brian Rodgers of ChangeAustin.org, one of the groups leading the fight to stop the public subsidy of F1 said, “This is a great victory for Austin taxpayers and we thank the candidate we endorsed, Kathie Tovo, for standing strong and leading the opposition.   Tovo and our determined wall of community activists blocked this bad deal and forced the hand of the Formula 1 investors which was heading for a majority council rubber stamp approval next week.”

Richard Viktorin of Audits in the Public Interest, who performed a forensic analysis of  State Comptroller Susan Comb’s economic and fiscal estimate of the Formula deal said, “Kathie Tovo and all of us fighting this, just saved $40 million for the taxpayers of Austin.  Now, let’s see if the Texas legislature takes this subsidy down as they’re still trying to figure out where to find more money for public education.  Formula 1 is, so far, still getting a great deal.  It doesn’t take CPA to understand that a $4M trade for $25M, for each of 10 years, is a winner for Formula One yet still a bad deal for beleaguered Texas taxpayers.”