M’S Stadium Plan Closer To Reality

The governor said Friday he will call the Legislature into special session Thursday if it appears by then that lawmakers will pass a still-undrafted plan to help finance a new ballpark for the Seattle Mariners.

Gov. Mike Lowry and legislative leaders emerged from a fifth straight day of closed-door talks in Olympia to say they were close to drafting a financing scheme for a $285 million retractable-roof stadium. But they said they had not signed off on a deal, and probably wouldn’t until Monday.

A leading Senate Democrat threw her support behind the stadium during a visit to Spokane.

Sen. Nita Rinehart of Seattle, chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the state has enough extra tax money coming in this year to justify using some of it for a new stadium.

She said the state should contri bute $120 million in current cash reserves to the project. The Mariners, King County and the city of Seattle would come up with the rest.

Rinehart said some lawmakers want to borrow money for the stadium, and leave the cash reserves for other uses.

The state is expecting a $700 million surplus at the end of the current two-year budget cycle.

, DataTimes