Hee Haw! Uncle Sam just NASCAR-ed my check book!

(Getty Images)
Introducing today’s boondoggle du jour:  the bailout bill just passed by Congress creates an accelerated depreciation timetable for motor-track construction costs, reducing the timetable from 15 years to 7 years.  This will cost the American taxpayer an estimated $100 million in lost tax revenues.

Bear with me, folks.  'Cuz I got some 'splainin' to do here…

When I went to grad school to get a Masters in Business Administration, the good professors at Northwestern University taught us that, according to GAAP (that’s Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), depreciation of capital assets should mirror, as reasonably as possible, the actual useful life of the assets in question.  This means that if something lasts for 15 years, you depreciate it 1/15th each of 15 years.

The amount of depreciation directly impacts the amount of taxes paid:  the greater the depreciation in any one year, the lower the net profits, and the lower your taxes.

Well, as long as we are funding sports, let’s really fund some sports!  Wrigley Field is in BAD, BAD need of new urinals.  They got these huge friggin’ troughs, which can be fun, under certain circumstances, but that’s just me.  Hey – how about sinking a little money to finance a makeover of the Boise State football field?  Have you seen that blue monstrosity?  I was watching the game the other night and it seared my corneas…

I have a very long list here.  If interested, please email me, and I will share.

But I am being obtuse, and I should stop.  I have to admit, this bailout bill really was a boon to Main Street.  Main Street in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, where folks sho’ do luv dem craaaaaazy moto-sports!