Our last chance to save the Sonics!!!

[Sounder]

She is an idiot if she is timid. If just a couple of Sonics fans switch their vote from Gregoire to Rossi, she loses the election. Also, this does not effect people outside of King County (except when they visit King County), so it is not an issue that will hurt her in a bulk of the state.

Does Gregoire want to be the Gov. who was willing to give $80,000,000 for a sprawling, giant parking lot/equistrian center along I-5 near Winlock and not have the Qwest/Safeco funds expire on time, which will chip in $75,000,000 to save the Sonics and Seattle Center?

[Ginkgo]

Another very last minute attempt to save a Seattle sports team. Mariners. Seahawks. Always last minute, it seems. Nail biting.

[TheBellevueBoss]

this is a long short but lets hope for the best....

[mhays]

I was on the fence about the earlier package, but I'm totally in favor of this one. It's the sort of "meeting halfway" approach that I've always supported.

[Seattlelife]

There is a rally tomorrow in Olympia from 10 to 11am.

This is OUR chance. PLEASE SHOW UP IF AT ALL POSSIBE.

I live in the U District and have room for 4 more. Please don't be shy if you want to join me!!

http://sonicscentral.com/blog/?p=1742#more-1742

[taiwanesedrummer36]

Let's kill Clay Bennett, period.

[testdrive]

It seems amazing when I read in the paper that the building moratorium for the port authority is lifted and they can continue to build a $432 million car rental center at the airport and they don't want to "rush" into a decision on an issue involving $75 million that has been bouncing around (kinda like the metaphor) for almost 2 years........... ya gotta love it

[TheBellevueBoss]

^

I was thinking the same thing....432 million for a rental center.....WTF????

[citruspastels]

Well, it's not being paid for with taxpayer money.

[Seattlelife]

This is a great article by Steve Kelly.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...kelley090.html

This week is VITAL in keeping the team here. The new ownership group is willing to spend 150 million dollars to help renovate Key Arena. The city of Seattle has offered 75 million dollars that they will get from ticket sales at Key Arena. The final piece of the puzzle is 75 million dollars from the state. The money would come from the same tax that built Qwest and Safeco Fields and will NOT require an extension or increase in the tax!!! The tax on hotels, restaurants and rental cars is only administered within King County and it is set to end early. To save the Sonics we only need to run the tax its originally intended length until 2016!!!

The state has 150 million dollars to help renovate Key Arena. This needs to be done regardless of the Sonics playing there are not. Why would we pass up the 150 million from the new owners AND let the team leave? This is a NO BRAINER.

THIS NEEDS TO GET DONE THIS WEEK!!! I can NOT stress this enough. The NBA is voting in April on whether or not to allow Clay Bennett to relocate. This amazing arena package and ownership group will keep the team here. We can't let Olympia ruin this. Call them, email them, tell them this offer is too good to pass and makes far too much sense to pass up. Also, regardless of when their session is supposed to end, this NEEDS to be approved of NOW!!!

[Seattlelife]

The local buyers have increased the pressure too.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABP...2004272689.pdf

This is a great letter. An opportunity like this really needs to be taken. Not to mention they've known about it since Feb. 15th. What on Earth are they doing in Olympia?????

[Seattlelife]

Dino Rossi makes a positive statement about the arena proposal.

"I have been skeptical about stadium plans in the past, but this is the best proposal I've ever seen in this area," Rossi said in a written statement.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...sonics10m.html

Plus;

“It is important for residents statewide to understand that the state will not be paying a dime for the new arena, but will be gaining millions in revenue,” said Rossi.

http://www.dinorossi.com/index.php?o...d=120&Itemid=1

[SeattleRedhawk86]

Wow! Unbelievable! What the Hell is wrong with our politicians and governor? This is way more reasonable than what Bennett and company were asking for. On top of that the owners will vote next month.

[Sounder]

All the voters get to see the difference between Rossi and Gregoire this week. They get to see who is informed, who isn't. Who wants to lead, who wants to pass the buck.

Christine Gregoire is doing more damage to the Seattle SuperSonics than Clay Bennett. Call her today and tell her to start leading and get the arena deal this week!

(360) 902-4111

[Puertalian]

olympia response is such a disapointment. this is an unprecedented offer. Take advantage of it for god's sake!

[Seattlelife]

Originally Posted by Puertalian

olympia response is such a disapointment. this is an unprecedented offer. Take advantage of it for god's sake!

Right now I am embarrassed to be a Washingtonian. This is NOTHING like the Qwest and Safeco deals. Does Olympia really lack the foresight to see just how little this will require to get done?

[TheBellevueBoss]

there is NO team in place.....that is the hold up....

[PDXPaul]

That's not the holdup, this is the holdup

Not just the Sonics want those stadium taxes
Posted Tue, Mar 11, 10:06 AM
By David Brewster
The showdown in Olympia over the Sonics is much more than a shoving match between Speaker Frank Chopp, a populist who likes to defy bailouts for sports owners, and the Seattle establishment, which wants the team to buttress Seattle Center and tourism interests and for reasons of civic pride. A bigger issue is the years-long clamoring for a taxing source that might get away.

Those are the so-called "stadium taxes," a mixture of taxes on car rentals, restaurants and bars, hotel rooms, and local sales tax. The money is all generated locally in King County, but instead of going into the Olympia general fund, it gets rebated back to pay off construction of Safeco Field and Qwest Field. And they are supposed to expire as the stadiums are paid off in the next decade.

Expire? In a state with no income tax and Tim Eyman attacking other taxes like license tabs, "expire" is a dirty word. So instead we've had years of backstage maneuvering to direct those expiring taxes to pet projects in King County. Many are lined up, which is one main reason why the politicians in Olympia are reluctant to have the Sonics "jump the queue," thus angering many of the more patient supplicants.

Gov. Gregoire's letter to Mayor Greg Nickels and others, counseling a year of study and prioritizing, lays out many of the interests in the queue: "arts, low-income housing, education, youth sports, community and economic development, Puget Sound cleanup, Husky Stadium renovation, and [Seattle Center] projects."

Note that bit about Husky Stadium, whose advocates also attempted to jump the line earlier in the session (to no avail, apparently). The housing portion is seemingly aimed at housing for the homeless, a priority of Speaker Chopp. A comprehensive package, with something for all these interests, is what the year-long "study" would try to assemble.

Arts? That would be the request, over many sessions, to commit a goodly portion of hotel-motel taxes to 4Culture, the King County organization that funds arts, culture, and heritage institutions and which would be at a loss in 2012, when lodging taxes for arts expires (it shifts from paying off the Kingdome debt to Qwest Field in 2013). A bill to fund 4Culture with lodging tax money after 2020, when Qwest Field has been paid off, passed the Senate, 44-5, but is held up by Speaker Chopp, and likely doomed for this session.

One more political wrinkle is that the politicians get to spend money without raising their own taxes, which makes these stadium taxes all the sweeter. For instance, King County might reasonably be expected to fund the arts, given all its kind words for the arts, but instead it passes through money from the state. Put another way, the stadium tax money is really levied on visitors, not locals.

This complicated bit of buck-passing has a downside, however, and that is the way it deals politicians at all levels, county, city, state, into the decision-making. Sure enough, King County Executive Ron Sims, through whom all these county-based taxes must pass, has broken ranks with the City and the Steve Ballmer group wanting to buy the Sonics, by siding with Gregoire's approach of thinking about all the issues for a year, thus "prioritizing and bundling several of the issues to provide the most comprehensive plan for our civic project funding needs."

[BellevueBoy]

The hold up is that Frank Chopp is a sports hating douche bag and Christine Gregoire is totally in over her head and has no idea what to do. We need to get both of those clowns out of Olympia.

[Seattlelife]

Originally Posted by BellevueBoy

The hold up is that Frank Chopp is a sports hating douche bag and Christine Gregoire is totally in over her head and has no idea what to do.

Exactly. Frank Chopp HAS to go. Talk about short sighted and stubborn.