House Approves Legislation To Raise Money For New Mariners Stadium

Supporters of a new ballpark for the Seattle Mariners who thought they’d struck out late Thursday night hit a home run Friday.

The House approved SB6049, on a 50-40 vote, a measure to raise money for a new stadium for the Mariners.

Late Thursday night the House defeated the bill, but a procedural motion allowed for another vote to be taken Friday.

The approved measure would allow a five-year deferral on the $20.5 million in sales and use taxes that would be charged on construction of the new stadium. After five years, the taxes would be paid back over 10 years.

In addition, it would allow King County to use a larger share of an existing rental-car tax for stadium construction. That would bring in $18 million over five years.

The owners of the Mariners have said they will leave Seattle if they can’t piece together funding for a new ballpark, preferably a 45,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof.

The bill now goes back to the Senate for concurrence.