Despite earlier supporting a campaign to back a 1%
prepared-food tax to help finance a new ballpark in the
Triad, some restaurant owners are now dropping that support,
according to Justin Catanoso of the Greensboro NEWS &
RECORD. Around 30 Wendy's restaurants "bailed out first,
just three days" after the campaign launch. Now, 62 Subway
shops -- whose planned promo included free tickets to the
'98 World Series -- have dropped out. Subway spokesperson
Greg Cox: "We don't think the prepared food tax is the way
to go." Walt Klein, Manger of "Vote Yes for MLB," said that
restaurants knew the prepared foods tax was the "only public
financing choice on the ballot in May." Klein: "Every
single step of the way, all of the facts were on the table.
What's happened is inconceivable" (NEWS & RECORD, 3/12).
FEAR OF LOST SALES: While polls show the prepared-food
tax trailing, most indicate a large number of undecideds.
Catanoso: "So what happened? In a word -- fear. Of lost
sales and eroded profits." Subway's Cox: "We have way too
many stores and way too much to lose to jeopardize our
stores. We don't think it would be in the best interest to
stay involved." While Catanoso wrote that the "depth of the
opposition" is "unclear," the "defections to the stadium tax
cause aren't over yet." Pepsi is "receiving pressure from"
Lowes Foods supermarkets to drop its involvement and Pespi
is "now weighing whether to drop its promotion." But about
12 Pizza Hut restaurants "appear willing to stay involved."
Ballpark proponents were hoping to use the restaurant
support to build a database of young voters to target for
the May vote, but "other ways of building that database are
now underway" (Greensboro NEWS & RECORD, 3/12).
