Stadium Saga Moves Toward End Zone Legislators Say They Are Close To A $425 Million Proposal For A New Facility For Seahawks

Lawmakers toiling for weeks to come up with a $425 million proposal to build a new football stadium in Seattle say they are close to victory.

The stadium saga has been something of a soap opera in Olympia, where a half-dozen different proposals have crashed and supposedly firm deadlines to approve the proposal in time to put it to a statewide vote of the people have come and gone.

Now many lawmakers think they have come up with the winning formula:

Kill a tax on sports memorabilia and clothing with logos that was taking heavy shelling in the House.

Make billionaire Paul Allen kick in a little more through a contribution to common school construction. Get him to pay half his share of the stadium cost up front.

Siphon off 2 percent of the state sales tax on motels and hotels in King County and pour it into stadium construction.

The proposal pays for construction of a new, open-air, natural grass stadium next door to the $414 million baseball stadium now under construction for the Mariners.

It also buys demolition of the 20-year old Kingdome, and builds a new exhibition hall next door for home shows, boat shows and other events.

Allen, who has insisted on a commitment to building a new stadium before he will buy the Seattle Seahawks, gave a cautious thumbs up through representatives in Olympia Tuesday.

“We are encouraged,” said Burt Kolde of Football Northwest, Allen’s company.

Under the proposal, Allen would kick in half of his $100 million contribution to the stadium up front, and the state would plow the $14 million worth of interest on his $50 million into stadium construction.

The new version also sets aside 20 percent of the net profit from the exhibition center to common school construction.

Two percent of the state sales tax on hotel and motel rooms in King County would also be diverted to pay for construction of the stadium.

The 2 percent now goes to King County in the form of a credit against the state sales tax, and is used by the county to retire the Kingdome debt and pay for county arts programs.

The tax credit was due to expire in 2012. But under the stadium plan the credit would be extended until 2020, pouring $45 million into construction of the football stadium.

The state would also kick in a portion of the state share of the general sales tax to King County for stadium construction. That raises another $101 million.

New scratch tickets would be created to raise $127 million; and ticket and parking taxes at the facility would raise $59 million. King County hotel and motel taxes would raise $45 million.

If the proposal gets out of Olympia, the entire issue goes to the voters statewide in June.

The new proposal is the first to get positive reviews from the House, which may vote on it as soon as Thursday.

The Senate approved an earlier version of the stadium plan three weeks ago, but it drew nothing but catcalls from across the rotunda.

House members would not go along with a provision in that bill that put a tax on sports clothing and memorabilia with team logos.

The controversial tax was opposed by the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and minor league teams around the state who didn’t want to be forced to pay for a competitor’s stadium.

Sen. Alex Deccio, R-Yakima, prime sponsor of the bill approved in the Senate, said he was sure that if House members approve the new deal, the Senate will go along.

The new plan also prompted the first words of encouragement from House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-Wenatchee. “This is a much better proposal than what we have had. I’ve had people who were an absolute ‘no’ on it before say they could support this. It’s a move in the right direction.”

Rep. Steve Van Luven, R-Bellevue, football’s top booster in the House, was optimistic. “I think we will get this out of the House. We took the logo tax out, and that’s been the problem.”

Rebecca Bogard, lobbyist for hotel and motel interests, said her clients won’t fight the bill because it doesn’t affect room rates. The tax credit was expected to be applied to other uses when it expired anyway, she said.

“Might as well use it for this as anything else,” said Sen. Jim West, R-Spokane, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Lawmakers still have plenty of work ahead. For one thing, few of the numbers assumed in the deal approved by the Senate match figures assumed for the same things in new proposal, even for the same items.

Locke said he was confident the deal pencils out. But with the bill not yet drafted, some budget hawks are still far from convinced. “I have yet to see anything on paper,” said Rep. Tom Huff, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

, DataTimes