Paul Allen Sent Big Bill For Election Software Billionaire Levied $4 Million For Stadium Vote

Dear Paul Allen: Please send money. Lots of it.

The software billionaire is covering the $3,998,284.18 cost of the June special election in which voters approved a funding package for construction of a new Seattle Seahawks football stadium and exhibition hall on the site of the Kingdome.

On Tuesday, Washington state sent Allen a bill for the $851,249 final installment.

It won’t come as any surprise to the incoming - and not very outgoing - Seahawks owner. He agreed during the recent legislative session to pick up the tab for the election if lawmakers would agree to place his stadium proposal on the ballot.

Some critics said the unprecedented I’ll-pay-for-it deal smacked of buying the election.

Legislative leaders said it was a one-time-only situation and that it was perfectly appropriate for Allen to foot the bill since he was in a big hurry to get an answer from the voters.

It’s not exactly petty cash, but Allen won’t be reduced to moonlighting or taking in laundry, either. He’s the sixth-richest private citizen on the planet, according to the latest Forbes 200 listing, which says he has a cool $14.1 billion, not counting the latest increase in Microsoft stock earnings.

And, hey, he got a deal on the election. The secretary of state’s office originally told him to expect a bill of $4.2 million, and the state and counties pulled it off for a shade under $4 million.

Allen mailed in a check for $3,059,776.84 on June 25, and ponied up another $87,258.34 on July 3.

By far the biggest expense was the 39 counties’ cost of running the election - about $3.55 million. Many counties used vote-by-mail balloting. Some had regular polling hours for the June 17 election.

The Voters’ Pamphlet cost about $400,000 to produce and mail.

Allen broke another barrier during the campaign, easily setting a new state record for campaign spending on a ballot measure or elective office. He spent $6.25 million, mostly on advertising and consultants. The old record, of $5.1 million, was set by Republican U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton during his 1994 re-election campaign.

And then there’s the reported team purchase price of $200 million, the costs of signing new players, a personal down payment of $50 million for the stadium, annual payments of $1 million to advertise the lottery, and so on.