After Weeks Of Losses, Football Stadium Gains Yards Legislation To Allow Public Vote On Seattle Seahawks Stadium Approved By Senate Committee
After weeks of debate and setbacks, legislation to allow a public vote on a Seattle Seahawks stadium plan cleared a key hurdle Monday in the Senate.
The bipartisan voice vote in the Senate budget committee came a few hours after Gov. Gary Locke met separately with Democrats and Republicans to pitch a revised version of his financing plan for a $402 million stadium and exhibition center that would replace the Kingdome.
The package of lottery games and sports-related taxes still must be approved by the full Senate and House, and time is running out. State elections officials say they’ll need about 60 days to set up the June 3 statewide election that prospective Seahawks owner Paul Allen has promised if the Legislature approves the plan.
Allen paid $20 million for a one-year option to buy the team, which expires July 1.
Locke had hoped for a vote Monday by the full Senate, but GOP leaders scheduled the bill, SB5999, for a Wednesday vote to give lawmakers more time.
“I’m confident that the votes are there,” Locke said after emerging from a closed-door meeting with Republican senators. “Time is of the essence if there is to be an early June election.”
Under the revised financing package, the public’s share of the stadium costs would be capped at $325 million, with Allen providing the rest from the sale of “personal seat licenses” and his own money. Extra revenues would be used to build youth playfields around Washington.
The public’s share would be raised through new lottery games, a 5-percent wholesale tax on logo-bearing sports apparel, higher admissions and parking taxes at the stadium and a sales tax credit on construction.
The original plan contained a tax increase on rental cars in King County and a 10-percent wholesale tax on sports apparel and other sports items, such as trading cards. But the governor and Allen agreed to drop the car-rental tax, which was raised last year to help pay for a new Seattle Mariners’ ballpark, and to revise the sports tax to exclude trading cards and other memorabilia after lawmakers complained it was a tax on children.
Lawmakers apparently appreciated the changes.
Three weeks ago, the Senate Ways and Means Committee voted 18-3 to reject an earlier version of the financing plan. During that vote, several committee members squirmed in their seats as they agonized over whether to vote for a new stadium.
Monday’s action was devoid of such drama.
This time, committee members rejected a request by Sen. Harold Hochstatter, R-Moses Lake, for a public roll-call vote and simply held a voice vote. The process took just a few minutes.
“It’s another step forward,” said Bert Kolde, vice chairman of Allen’s Football Northwest. “We think momentum has been building.”
Thirteen senators - seven Democrats and six Republicans - later signed the committee report recommending that the Senate pass the measure. The remaining eight senators, including Majority Leader Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, did not sign the report.
In case the revised plan didn’t pass, Ways and Means Chairman Jim West, R-Spokane, had prepared his own version that substituted a 24-hour-a-day keno game for the sports tax. But other legislative leaders, including House Speaker Clyde Ballard, have said they oppose expanding keno from its current once-a-day offering.