Ross Hunter, Frank Chopp Closer to KeyArena Solution

As noted in a prior story, in the Feb. 12 USAToday.com story "No buzz about NBA returning to Seattle,"AP Reporter Tim Booth had unknowingly passed along the missing piece in the arena puzzle to KeyArena rebuilding hopefuls like me.

Booth summarized Washington State House Finance Committee Chairman Ross Hunter's, D-Madina, statements: "He was working with House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, on a plan for stadium funding that everybody can live with, but wasn't willing to disclose any details."

Over the past three years, Chopp has been in opposition to stadium and arena solutions that involved the state, even when the revenue did not come from the state's general fund. Speaker Chopp and others were so dissatisfied with the relationship between state-wide priorities and the local community needs of anything in King County (and Seattle) that a state task force was formed to construct a solution.

Joint Task Force Local Financing Options for King County had been formed, with Ross Hunter as a co-chair and Washington State senator Ed Murray as a member. The task force was presented with a variety of proposals to use the county-wide hotel/care rental/ restaurant tax, as well as the Seattle only hotel tax. Some of these locally collected taxes have state sales tax credits contributing to their funds.

Unfortunately, the task force did not produce a report of recommendations about what the locally collected funds should be spent on, with Mr. Hunter commenting to a Tacoma News Tribune writer that there "isn't a natural jurisdiction" for this situation.

As Mr. Hunter stated back in December in the Tacoma News Tribune, his personal preference is that the state sales tax component goes back to the state. Mr. Hunter was quoted in Friday's web edition of the Seattle PI as reiterating that same preference for returning the state's portion back to the state.

Here are some key quotes, with my commentary interspersed:

"I think I've got something that will work here," said Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina and chairman of the House Finance committee. "I am very close to releasing a plan."

Hunter would not offer specifics, saying he is awaiting approval from House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle.

He said his plan would not include a penny of state money but would be financed entirely by money raised in the city.

To a great extent this was the idea all along. What I think is useful is that he is being quoted in public explicitly stating the position before the inevitable argument is made by sports haters. How he constructs this is still largely unknown.

Hunter said he has no problem allowing the city to impose its own taxes but feels no pressure to enable Seattle to cash in on the bonus [from Clay Benett].

"I would go out of my way to figure out a way to take $30 million from those guys in Oklahoma City. I would go out of my way to do that just for the fun of it, just for the sport," Hunter said. But "the fact that Seattle has negotiated a deal that (is meant to) force me to act is not attractive to me."

Mr. Bennett named Mr. Hunter and Mr. Chopp as the people that stopped Bennett's quest for a free $500 million stadium to be built in Renton Washington.

Seattle had asked lawmakers to allow the city to tap a local hotel and motel tax surcharge that is used to pay off previous work at the Seattle Convention Center. That tax source is raking in money more quickly than previously projected. But the idea of extending it to KeyArena does not have traction in Olympia, Hunter said.

It appears that Mr. Hunter will take back the state's sales tax component, while Ed Murray is proposing that the convention center proposal move forward.


"There is no appetite down here for fixing KeyArena with state dollars," he [Hunter] said.

Hunter said his plan would not rely on admission taxes, which are better used for facility maintenance. He hinted it might include money for affordable housing -- a pet concern for Chopp.

Despite its surplus, the convention center tax is not an option for KeyArena because it is partly funded through a state sales tax credit, Hunter said.

"I want the state's money back," Hunter said.

The credit costs the state about $10 million a year, he said. Without that portion of the convention center revenue stream, the taxes do not raise enough to overhaul KeyArena.

There you go, $10 million—the one percent the City of Seattle was hoping to use is sort of being identified as the state's portion of the convention center fund. Mr. Hunter has doubts about the convention center's proposal, and has sliced off $10 million from that same fund.

Here is the state's position, or at least Hunter's, as it relates to the City of Seattle and the settlement between the city and Clay Bennett.

But he has no problem "getting out of the way" of local governments that want to make their own tax decisions, he said.

Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis believes a pair of motivations will encourage lawmakers to help the city, despite the Legislature's previous rejections of KeyArena tax proposals. One incentive is the $30 million payoff. The other is that the future of Seattle Center is to some degree tied to the health of KeyArena.

"Seattle Center is a more sympathetic issue than NBA basketball," Ceis said.

Still, the state faces a biennial shortfall of $6 billion or more, and lawmakers are facing cries for help from every corner.

"This is not an easy proposal for this legislative session," Ceis said.

Hunter said he would not be "embarrassed" into granting the city authority so it can chase the bonus. That provision was intended to put political pressure on the Legislature, Hunter said.

"You know, children do stuff like this," he said.

"So I feel no compulsion to act on this simply because Seattle has negotiated a deal without consulting with me beforehand. If it works out, it works out. If it doesn't, I'm sorry."

"I might have agreed to it ahead of time if they asked me but they didn't," Hunter said. "I just don't like that whole transaction."

This is the environment the lowly citizen (me) toils in while attempting to encourage the right people to do the right thing.

So, there is not going to be a specific KeyArena solution prescribed by the state, and absolutely not with any state funds. This is a broader problem requiring a broader solution that takes the state out of the role of deciding local issues where the state does not have a direct financial interest.

Hunter is separately working on broader legislation to reform financing of major facilities, he said.

Qwest Field, Safeco Field and the Convention Center were all paid for through a tax source deliberately set to raise more money than was needed—to ensure better bond ratings, he said.

But that results in surplus funds that are inevitably raided by "rapacious" budget writers, Hunter said. Next thing you know, governments or programs are relying on that extra money for tangential needs.

Hunter is also keeping the details of that plan quiet until he can get Chopp's approval.

There you have it, the state government trying to get out of the way, out of participating in any way in stadiums and arenas.

This morning Brian Robinson at SonicsCentral.com stating his feeling of hope.

Have a great day,
Mr. Baker

(17 percent recycled content from prior stories)