Arena Proves Tax Dollars Reap Big Dividends

Larry and Gerry Boyd spent much of last week seated in Section 105 of the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena watching high school basketball.

They drove to Spokane from Coulee Dam, where they now live in retirement, just for the State B Basketball Tournament.

The week was a big deal for them, a major road trip, an event.

The new, tax-supported Arena made it fun for the Boyds. They came to town, spent money, felt good about the state where they live.

“This new arena is really nice,” Larry Boyd said with a smile at the end of the La Conner-Tacoma Baptist game. “In the old Coliseum people would always come down and stand in front and we couldn’t see. In this place, every seat is a good seat.”

The Boyds are two reasons why rookie legislators and budget hawks need to take a breath and consider the good things tax dollars can do for communities and taxpayers alike.

The Arena was bought on time, with tax dollars. In Spokane, local taxpayers voted to approve the bonds for its construction.

This is one way to pay for new capital projects, but in many instances, the Legislature approves the projects and authorizes the tax-supported bonds used to finance them.

Many of the best-known tourist, cultural and educational facilities in Washington have been financed this way: the Seattle Science Center, the Museum of Flight, Pike Place Market and Tacoma’s Union Station, to name a few.

Most states, most years, finance most of the expansions of their public buildings, museums and other facilities through legislative approval of capital projects backed by tax-supported bonds.

But this year, Republicans in Washington’s Legislature decided to rewrite the rules.

House Republicans have made an unprecedented pledge to not approve a single new capital expenditure in the state.

Rep. Barry Sehlin, R-Oak Harbor, who chairs the House Capital Budget Committee, put it this way: “Every year the question is who got what for their district. The news this year is there’s no news. The answer is the same for everyone.”

In short, nobody gets nothin.’

For Spokane, this new benchmark of saying no to any new bricks and mortar hits particularly hard.

The Cheney Cowles Museum maintains one of the 10 best Plateau Indians artifact collections in the world. The collection mostly is stacked up in storage because the museum has no suitable display space.

The museum lobbied hard for $1.2 million to begin the work for development of a new display for the artifacts. The project was No. 1 on the city’s list of capital priorities.

Sehlin came to Spokane to visit the museum. He was impressed with the collection. He said he understood the need to preserve and display it.

But there was no way this year, he concluded.

In addition, the city wanted funds to begin to study an expansion of the Spokane Convention Center.

Again, the answer was no.

The city-proposed purchase of land to expand its higher education park took a bullet, too.

If Washington state were in the midst of a recession or if no money were available for capital projects, this tight-fistedness would be easier to understand.

But the state has the money for some additional capital projects.

Thanks to lower interest rates, the state could tap an extra $100 million to $150 million that already has been approved but not spent for capital projects.

These millions are above and beyond the more than $300 million surplus the state projects having from overall revenue collections, thanks to a strong Boeing- and Microsoft-driven economy.

Still, as Rep. Larry Crouse, R-Spokane Valley, explained, the thinking in the current legislative session is that any money that becomes available this year should be saved or given back as tax cuts to send a message that government as usual can’t continue.

“We agreed last year to an overall budget and I think most of us are saying we should hold that line,” he said.

This may sound high-minded, but it isn’t all that consistent.

For decades, Republicans have supported capital building projects in every legislative session. Since 1989, for example, the Legislature has approved 49 new capital projects during supplemental budget sessions just like the one now winding down.

And wasn’t it this same Republican Legislature that decided in special session only 120 days ago to approve over $100 million in state funding for the new Seattle Mariners baseball stadium?

The point of all this can still be heard echoing around the Arena the morning after the State B finals.

Sometimes, the people are well served when politicians agree to support spending tax dollars on worthwhile building projects.

Spokane had some worthwhile projects this year.

The city got stiffed and it makes no sense.

, DataTimes MEMO: Chris Peck is the Editor of The Spokesman-Review. His column appears each Sunday.