Convention Center Bill Lacks Local Support Key Politicians Say It Won’T Get Their Backing As It’S Now Written

A bill to help pay for Spokane Convention Center expansion has been introduced to the Washington Legislature, but without significant changes, a number of key local politicians say it won’t get their support.

Introduced in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the bill would modify the existing public facilities district law to include convention centers and create various new funding mechanisms, including a state sales tax credit.

But the bill also could load the public facilities district board with City Council members, and allow the district to levy a .1 percent sales tax without a vote by the people, two areas that will cost the bill support unless modified, Sen. Jim West, R-Spokane, said.

“The way it’s structured now, I don’t think it will get very far,” West said.

Changes are in the works, said Assistant City Manager Dave Mandyke, who helped write the legislation.

“I’m going to do a complete rewrite of that section,” Mandyke said. “We’re going to draft a new bill and hopefully have Sen. West sponsor it.”

Mandyke said he hoped to have the changes in place by next week.

The bill is one of the various funding devices city officials hope to employ in order to build an $85 million expansion of the Spokane Convention Center.

A key element of the legislation is a .033 sales tax credit for communities that want to build convention or special event centers. The figure was arrived at by adding the amounts of credits used to build new football and baseball stadiums in Seattle.

The bill also includes provisions for a 2 percent hotel and motel tax, and a 1 percent property tax.

Acting on the advice of West and other legislators, city officials drafted the bill in coordination with Tacoma and Vancouver, cities that also are planning convention centers.

The language of the bill also worries county Commissioner Kate McCaslin, who has been involved in giving the convention center project county-wide appeal.

In order to guarantee support and garner votes for the project in the Valley, 10 to 20 percent of the revenue raised would be directed to a Valley facility, such as the Mirabeau Point community center.

The draft needs to be amended before McCaslin will support it, she said “My concerns are that the city could form a district county-wide, and could run the district on its own without county representation,” McCaslin said.

Mandyke said there were no sinister intentions behind the wording of the troublesome section, but simply an error arising from trying to write one piece of legislation in three different communities on two sides of the state.

“There’s no land grab, no takeover coup,” he said.

Rep. Don Carlson, R-Vancouver, who co-sponsored the bill, said he would not object to modifications that would give communities the right to vote on the sales tax.

Even if the legislation is rendered palatable to West and other politicians, much remains to be done before Spokane’s convention center expansion becomes a reality.

That includes determining if Spokane’s current public facilities district, which oversees the Arena, would also administer the convention center expansion, and whether the hotel-motel tax levied by the district for the Arena could be extended for the convention center.