Tax Money Not Used For Intended Purposes Funds From Car Rentals Meant To Be Used For Building Softball, Soccer Fields

Only a sliver of the money collected under a Spokane County tax intended to build soccer fields and softball diamonds for amateurs has been used for those purposes.

Until this year, Seafirst Stadium is the only sports field that has benefited from the tax on rental cars, which county commissioners adopted in 1992. Including the money promised this year, more than a third of the $1 million spent from the tax since 1995 has gone to maintain and improve the stadium.

The county-owned stadium is home to the Spokane Indians, a professional team that uses the field for 38 home games each year. Amateur baseball teams used the field 40 days last year, with all but high school teams paying $100 a day.

This year, the county plans to spend $116,000 at the stadium on a new roof for the administration buildings, new pavement out front and maintenance of the field. Indians owner Bobby Brett plans to invest about $40,000 in the stadium this year, he told commissioners last week.

Commissioners also have approved spending $31,000 on a program for horse riders, $10,000 to improve a baseball diamond in Airway Heights, and $25,000 on a soccer and softball complex scheduled to open in 1999. Those projects are for youth and amateur athletes.

The lion’s share of the rental car tax money goes to the Greater Spokane Sports Association, which has netted $576,000 from the tax since 1993. Commissioners recently signed a three-year agreement promising the association half the rental-car tax money it collects, up to $150,000 a year.

The association spends its money supporting and promoting amateur sports, including Hoopfest, Olympic trials, the state B basketball tournament and last year’s college volleyball championship, said GSSA Executive Director Eric Sawyer. None of the money goes toward developing sports fields.

Approved by the Legislature in 1992, the law authorizing counties to collect the 1 percent tax specifies that the money “not be used to subsidize any professional sports team.”

But among the approved uses are “acquiring, constructing, maintaining or operating public sports stadium facilities.” The Legislature didn’t rule out stadiums used primarily by professionals.

Three-quarters of the taxes King County has collected from car rentals has gone toward the Kingdome, said Adam Barnett of that county’s parks department. Asked during a 1992 Senate debate whether the money could be used to build a new stadium for the Seattle Mariners, Sen. Dan McDonald answered, “I think it (the law) is totally permissive.”

There was no such discussion about professional stadiums when Spokane County commissioners approved the tax later that year. Sam Angove, who since has retired as county parks director, noted serious crowding on the fields used by youth baseball, youth soccer and recreational softball teams.

“This (tax) is not going to solve the problem. It’s a part of the solution,” Angove told commissioners at the time.

Added Marshall Farnell, the county’s chief administrative officer who since has become the county budget director: “We see that money being used for a number of items. No. 1, for the development of new fields: soccer fields, softball fields.”

Although it has gotten nothing until now from the rental car tax, the sports complex being built at Plantes Ferry Park received $300,000 from the state and $200,000 from the county’s real estate excise tax, said county parks manager Wyn Birkenthal. An additional $461,000 of cash, labor and in-kind gifts is coming from private donors, including $150,000 from the Comstock Foundation.

Gib Brumback, project coordinator for the Spokane Valley Junior Soccer Association, praised the county for its support of the sports complex, calling the Park Department’s involvement “vital.”

But Brumback, a volunteer, said if he had known the county had money earmarked for sports fields, “I would have applied for it one, two, three, four, five years ago. … I’m out there fighting for dollars.”

He applied for $25,000 this year on the advice of Sawyer, Brumback said.

Rick Manfred, general manager of Dollar Rent-A-Car and a former GSSA board member, questions spending any of the money on Seafirst Stadium.

“This was not supposed to be used for professional sports,” he said. “Does that mean the Indians shouldn’t play in the park?”

Sawyer said the stadium is critical to his efforts to promote Spokane as a great place to hold sporting events. The GSSA hopes to host the World Series of small colleges in 2000.

“You don’t bid for that unless you have a first-class stadium,” he said.

County Commissioner John Roskelley, who has questioned the way the county spends the rental car tax, said there’s no denying that the county needs to continue putting money into the stadium. He and other county officials say its shabby bleachers and mangy field were an embarrassment before Brett took over the Indians in 1985.

Last year, coaches voted it the best stadium in the Northwest League, which includes the Indians and other minor league teams.

Roskelley said it’s appropriate that some of the money for the ballpark should come from the car rental tax because amateurs play there. The amount coming from other county sources should match the percentage of games played by the Indians, rather than amateurs, he said.

Other county officials caution that if the stadium money doesn’t come from car rentals, commissioners will have to take it from the county’s emergency reserve or by cutting other programs.

“It’s got to come from somewhere,” said Farnell.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Spokane’s sports tax spending