Legislator: TransPark can't climb above debt.

• Position: Eastern

The North Carolina Global TransPark's $39.7 million IOU to the state Escheat Fund underscores Benjamin Franklin's axiom that those who go borrowing end up sorrowing. GTP's latest audit warns that the debt, which has been growing since 1993, threatens the 2,500-acre industrial park's future, and this time the hand-wringing that traditionally follows the annual release of its financial figures is likely to force lawmakers and TransPark executives to come to grips with congenital flaws in the project.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"The debt, quite frankly, is something they can never pay back," says Rep. Stephen LaRoque, a Republican from Kinston, GTP's home. "I wish everybody had sat back at first and said, 'Let's look at how this thing is being financed and how we're going to pay for it.'"

The brainchild of UNC Chapel Hill professor John Kasarda, GTP was intended to attract just-in-time manufacturers who would use its two-mile runway to fly products worldwide. It attracted no major tenant until 2008, when Wichita, Kan.-based Spirit AeroSystems Inc. announced it would make airplane parts there. Lured by incentives that cut its rent to $ 100 a year, it agreed to hire 1,031.

The report from the state auditor's office shows GTP grossed about $1.4 million during the fiscal year that ended in June but spent $5.4 million. Executive Director Darlene Waddell says revenue came mainly from tenant leases and fees charged for aviation fuel pumped there. Kasarda's plan called for companies to support the park by paying big money to lease space, but with few tenants and its biggest one paying...