KeyArena: Deal or No Deal?

There are two ways one can interpret Angela Galloway's story in the Seattle PI this morning, a story which paints an ominous picture of the future of Sonics' basketball in Seattle.

1) Rep. Ross Hunter and the legislature is just trying to get this situation out of their collective laps, and pin the responsibility solely in the hands of the City of Seattle. By only providing authorization to the city to raise taxes - an authority the city already possesses, thank you very much - Hunter's bill 2252 really doesn't do much of anything. Looked at from that vantagepoint, it seems clear that Olympia is more interested in making sure they don't get accused of letting Clay Bennett's $30 million penalty payment go down the drain without any action on their part.

2) Hunter, and the city, are not done working on this. This, to me, is the more likely scenario. As in everything in politics, the devil is not in the details, but in the negotiations. Perhaps, just perhaps, Hunter is trying to keep this topic in the news by any means necessary, knowing that if he waits until spring to act, it will be too late. Lest we forget, the most common invective hurled at the state legislature in the past two years has the accusation that they have acted with all the swiftness of an Alton Lister fast break, when they should have proceeding more like Sedale Threatt.

If you choose to view this as a glass half-full scenario, then you might want to holster this quote from Hunter in your arsenal, in which he comments on how long it would take for a bill to be put together to satisfy the requirements of Bennett's payment to the city:

"These things are always done in three days at the end of session."

As it stands now, the city has rejected Hunter's bill, and the state has rejected the city's plan to use the hotel/motel tax. It is, simply, a minor impasse, not a major one, at least from where I sit. The important aspect to remember is that the two sides are still talking about the future of KeyArena. And while the aftertaste of reading this story might be bitter, remember that an even less tasty option would be this one:

No one talking about KeyArena at all.

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More On KeyArena Tax

Important aspects of the bill, as understood by a bill-reading novice:

- The bill, in essence, authorizes counties or cities to institute a restaurant tax of no more than five-tenths of one percent of the selling price. It does not, however, authorize any state funds.

- Once a threshold of revenue is reached (approximately $5 million), any extra monies received would be doled out as follows: 70% for “art museums, cultural museums, heritage museums, heritage and preservation programs, the arts, and the performing arts” and 30% for “stadium purposes … acquisition of open space lands; youth sports activities; and tourism promotion.”

- This, however, is only for revenues up ‘til 2013. From 2013 to 2015, all revenues collected go towards retiring any remaining debt on the arena. From 2016 to 2020, all remaining revenues go to a “stadium and exhibition center account.” After 2021, all revenues go to a “special county arts, regional center, low-income housing, and community development fund.”

- As far as I can tell, there is no end date to the tax.

- A car rental tax could also be utilized.

Again, the most important thing to note, from what I can tell, is that the state is merely giving cities and counties authorization to collect the tax. Rep. Hunter has determined that the state should not be involved in the KeyArena situation – perhaps wisely so, given the political climate in Olympia. If this tax can be instituted on a Seattle-only basis, it has a much more likely chance of passing (granted, that chance is still low, in my opinion, but it’s more likely to happen in Seattle than, say, Tumwater).

All that said, there’s no sense getting too worked up about this proposal. There are many more revisions and changes to come, naturally, and the bill as we see it today will not be the bill as we see it at the end.

Still, I would like to quote one particular part of the proposal which made me smile:

“The county shall not lease a public stadium that is financed directly or indirectly by bonds to which the tax is pledged to, or authorize the use of the public stadium by, a professional major league sports franchise unless the sports franchise gives the right of first refusal to purchase the sports franchise, upon its sale, to local government.”

Man, where was that language when we needed it …