Boosters' tax break

The athletic booster club for N.C. State University didn't instigate the law that let it build a dormitory complex just off the Raleigh campus, near athletic training facilities. That legislation was written thanks to a tax dispute between Appalachian State University in Boone and the local city and county governments. But N.C. State's booster organization, called the NCSU Student Aid Foundation and better known as the Wolfpack Club, moved in like a star linebacker on a slow quarterback to take advantage of the law. Wake County taxpayers are taking the hit.

The 440-bed College Inn complex on Western Boulevard opened in 2004 to students and student-athletes at N.C. State. The Wolfpack Club has owned the site since 1975, when it converted what was then a motor inn into apartments for State athletes. It was, in the jargon, a jock dorm, and it housed athletes until the National Collegiate Athletic Association outlawed special digs for players.

The club tore down the motel and built the complex of two-, three- and four-bedroom suites. Club executives say they'll use rent profits to pay off construction loans, and then spend them on athletic scholarships, which is one of the club's main purposes.

College Inn would be the club's own business, but the 2004 law lets it off the hook for what now amounts to $132,000 a year in Wake County property taxes. That's money the rest of county taxpayers have to make up.

State Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro Republican, voted against the measure and told The N&O's Lorenzo Perez, "I don't think the taxpayers mind footing the bill for legitimate educational expenses, but somewhere there's a fine line in there where you cross it, and athletics isn't a part of that. Or at least athletic boosters. I can't tell you chapter and verse exactly what should be done and where the line should be drawn, but I think they're pushing up against and maybe going across the proper line."

Blust is right. Legislators would do well to revisit this issue and question whether Wake taxpayers should, through this property tax break, in effect provide a giveaway to athletics boosters.