Judge Hears Arguments Against Funding New Mariner Stadium

A citizens group contended Thursday that legislation to finance a baseball stadium for the Seattle Mariners amounted to an illegal transfer of public money for private gain.

But state lawyers told Thurston County Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee that the public stands to gain most from the $320 million stadium because it would keep major league baseball, with its pleasures and benefits, in Washington.

McPhee was scheduled to rule this afternoon on a motion seeking a declaratory judgment that the 1995 Legislature violated the state constitution by authorizing the spending of $275 million in public money for the stadium, to be near the downtown Seattle Kingdome, the Mariners’ existing home.

Citizens for Leaders With Ethics and Accountability Now not only argued that the lawmakers illegally used public money for private purpose, but also illegally denied citizens the right to seek a referendum vote to overturn the legislation. The Legislature, when it passed the measure in October, attached an emergency clause putting it into effect immediately.

Lawyers for CLEAN contended there was no emergency. But attorneys for the state told McPhee the Mariners would have moved had the measure been subject to a public vote.

The CLEAN suit was filed after the Legislature, meeting in special session, approved a financing package to build the new ballpark. Lawmakers acted after owners of the American League West champions threatened to sell the team and move rather than remain in the Kingdome, and after King County voters rejected a plan to build a new stadium.