Seattle Center Arena Reboot

Washington State City and County Taxes in Context: Short Term Help for All

2010-01-16T12:15:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday the Washington State House Finance Committee will have a hearing, and take testimony, on at least three bills that are intended to allow local control of limited taxes, for a limited time.

Finance* - 01/19/10 1:30 pm
Full Committee
House Hearing Rm C
John L. O'Brien Building
Olympia, WA
REVISED 1/14/2010 3:16 PM
Public Hearing:
HB 2650 - Providing local flexibility with existing revenues during severe economic downturns.
HB 2749 - Concerning local government taxation.
HB 2773 - Concerning local excise tax authorities for counties and cities.
Committee Meeting Documents
Note: Documents are not available online until the meeting has begun.

HB 2650 allows cities and counties that collect a tax for new infrastructure for things like parks, libraries, police and fire training facilities, trails, etc., to also allow that money to be used for maintenence of capital facilities.

HB 2749 removes "nonsupplant" language from effected taxes. This allows a city like Spokane, or Seattle, to take a city budget item off thier general fund capital maintenence budget and supplant the state authorized tax sources to pay for this things.

HB 2773 "A county legislative authority may authorize, fix, and impose a sales and use tax until December 31, 2014. To retain or impose the tax after December 31, 2014, the county must submit an authorizing proposition to the county voters at a primary or general election and a majority of persons voting must approve the continuation or imposition of the sales and use tax."

For the followers of SB 6116 these other bills could mean a few things, conflicting things.
You could view this as supporting, and allowing, the City of Seattle, and King County, the ability to solve some of their general fund shortages by redirecting some of these taxes. That is true, to a point. The first two are aimed at non-core government functions.
In a way the first two bills isolate these "wants" from the "must do's". Still, those wants have an impact on may, many, lives.

The last bill is short term funding that has an end in 2014, and requires a public vote of simple majority to extend the tax. SB6116 does this for King County, and so maybe King County does not need SB 6116. On the other hand, try passing SB 6116 for King County and tell the 38 counties they can not do the same.
This could take the urgency out of passing SB 6116, or it could be a segue to cleaning up the laundry list of wants in that bill.

No matter, no other county, or city, can say something special is being given to Seattle and King County, and that may help. Every municipality is struggling right now. Local control over how and what to do about it is a useful context to have right now.

Remember, many hands make light work.

It lives

2010-01-13T22:02:00.000-08:00

Senate Bill 6116 lives:
2010 REGULAR SESSION

Jan 11 By resolution, reintroduced and retained in present status.

So, 5 minutes before the end of the last session ended they recall bills to thier last committee, Rules Committee, and reinstate those bills at the beginning of the session. So, lots of bills were reintroduced, and are back in play.

I have a bill tracker email alert set up, if this moves, I'll find out. You know, this could sit there for 55 days and get sent back to the floor. My guess is that this could be a Christmas Tree

60 Days of Low Expectations

2010-01-10T20:27:00.000-08:00

On New Years Eve I gave my eight 2010 predictions, this one applies here:

6, and 7. The Washington State Legislature's "short session" begins January 12, and runs fir 60 days. Urbanized counties will "horse trade" levy equalization in "tax poor" rural school distrcts for broader taxing authority in the "tax rich" districts. A lot hangs in the balance for Dow Constantine here, and he will show leadership here.
ManyWordsForRain, Predictions for 2010.

If anything is done that benefits KeyArena, it would be purely by accident. Accidents do happen, you just can not depend on them.

I will be watching and reporting. Tomorrow is day one of sixty.
Off topic, Onion Head Monster should be on Adult Swim!

Joe Zarelli, "Washington lawmakers should meet soon to deal with state budget imbalance"

2009-11-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

Special Session, or not to have a Special Session, that is this week's question. The economy has reached a bottom and the reality of the demand on public services, and reduced revenues, are realized.

Two weeks ago Washington State Senator Joe Zarelli pressed for a Special Session, writing in the Opinion pages of the Seattle Times:

The math is straightforward: Each dollar saved in January is equivalent to a cut of $1.50 in July. Put another way, $67 million in reductions effective in January will erase a $1.2 billion gap in 18 months, when the 2009-11 biennium ends; if lawmakers wait until July, the cuts must be 50 percent deeper, or $100 million per month.

If serving our most vulnerable citizens is truly important, acting early — preserving $33 million worth of services every single month — makes sense.
There's time for legislative leaders and budget writers to prepare a spending-reduction package to take effect Jan. 1. New state caseload and revenue forecasts are due Nov. 13 and 19, respectively, and assuming they don't significantly shrink the budget gap, Gov. Chris Gregoire or the Legislature itself can call a special session for early December. Legislators will be in Olympia already for committee meetings. It would cost no more to convene quickly, bring the cost-saving package forward and adopt it.
. . .
Trouble is, soon there will be nothing to force lawmakers to reduce spending, because this year's budget punt ran enough time off the clock to send I-960 off the field.

Under our constitution, it takes a two-thirds legislative vote to amend initiative-based laws enacted less than two years earlier. Initiative 960 took effect in December 2007, so when the Legislature convenes Jan. 11, the majority party can do what it could not in 2008 or 2009: toss I-960 and raise taxes all on its own. No vote by the people, no bipartisan support or "public conversation" required, just one late-night legislative roll call and those tax-hike protections vanish.

History says bet on it. In 2002 and 2005, the majority suspended limits on government taxation and spending created by the people, most recently to allow $500 million in tax increases.

Sen. Joseph Zarelli of Ridgefield is Republican leader on the Senate Ways and Means Committee and a member of the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.
From the Seattle Times, Op-Ed, Joe Zarelli, "Washington lawmakers should meet soon to deal with state budget imbalance"

His points are true, he may be right, but he is in the minority party. His influence is opinion based, he does not have the power to call a Special Session, the majority party does.
Posted in the SeattlePI.com yesterday was this report:

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Higher costs for government services have driven the state's projected budget shortfall to about $2 billion, Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget office said Friday.

And that's not all: The deficit is likely to grow even larger next week, when state economists issue a new forecast of expected tax income for the current budget period, which runs through mid-2011.
. . .
House Ways and Means Chairwoman Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, said the Legislature will have to be open to all options, including the elimination of some state services. The Legislature largely avoided those kind of cuts last session, instead opting for across-the-board reductions and one-time budget fixes.

"Now we're down to: Do we do the service, or do we not do it?" Linville said.

The Statehouse's minority Republicans still see room for savings through a major restructuring of how the state delivers services. The GOP also says the Legislature should make those moneysaving moves quickly, rather than spending money for months on programs that will eventually have to be cut.

"Timing is everything," said Senate GOP budget chief Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield.

Linville agreed with Zarelli's push for quick action, and said her colleagues in the House have spent the summer compiling lists of moneysaving ideas.

She and Zarelli also agreed that the majority may look first at closing some tax loopholes, rather than straight-ahead increases of the state's sales, business, or property taxes.
SeattlePI.com By CURT WOODWARD, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER, Washington budget short about $2B through mid-2011

The next bit of news should show up on November 19th, when the revenue forecast comes out.

It is still unlikely that a Special Session happens, but not impossible. What should be clear is that the legislature is at work, and should be ready to go on cutting some things, and working to find ways for local governments some options.
Allowing King County, and Seattle, to extend existing hotel taxes would allow both governments to shift non-core costs off core revenue streams.
Let's hope.

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com

Joe Mallahan, "I will work hard... to come to an investment plan that can get that accomplished"

2009-10-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

Candidate Joe Mallahan gave the most complete and supportive answer to resolving the KeyArena issue that either candidate has articulated thus far in the race for Mayor of Seattle.

This was his response durring a Reader Q and A session hosted by the Seattle Times Newspaper today.

Andrew from Seattle asked: Would you support bringing professional basketball back to Seattle?

Joe Mallahan answered: The SuperSonics were and are a big part of our culture, and professional sports are critical to a vibrant economy. Over 20,000 jobs were tied to the Sonics, and their loss had a major impact on Lower Queen Anne. The NBA won't consider Seattle unless we are committed to providing an appropriate facility. I will work hard with the City Council, the State, and the business community to come to an investment plan that can get that accomplished, and not solely on the backs of Seattle Taxpayers.

A snap of the Sonics sweatband to Brian Robinson at SonicsCentral for the find.

To this point both candidates for mayor, Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn, have said that they support a levy for Seattle Center in 2010 or 2011. Both have said they would look at the issue of what to do to revive KeyArena, but Joe Mallahan is the only one to articulate an understanding of the situation and his support to solving it.

I have no idea how Mike McGinn can claim to intend to work hard with all levels of government he intends to fight to force his surface solution onto as the replacement of Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct.
In a close race, as soon-to-be former Mayor Greg Nickels found out in the primary, every vote counts.

Can Joe Mallahan count on the Save Our Sonics faithful?

Endorsements? SOS?

I made mine yesterday.

My voter's guide is ready, endorsements, and a smurf sighting.

2009-10-11T17:04:00.000-07:00

My voter's guide is ready, endorsements, and a smurf sighting.

Dispatches from the Tenth Circle - The Seattle Voters' Pamphlet Version 2009

You are welcome America!

Sonicsgate

2009-10-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

Sonicsgate Trailer

2009-08-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

So, how does the media event on 10/12/09 Impact the Seattle and King County elections being held three weeks later?
Since so many media members are in it there will be a great deal of attention to this event by the media.

iPhone users, there is a YouTube link at the bottom of this post.

Sonicsgate Trailer from sonicsgate on Vimeo.

The SONICSGATE documentary film premieres for free on the internetz Monday, October 12.

Peep the trailer live in HD at www.sonicsgate.org.

Featuring exclusive HD interviews with more than 35 key characters including Kevin Calabro, Sam Perkins, Brent Barry, Desmond Mason, Nick Collison, Doug Christie, Jamal Crawford, Aaron Brooks, James Donaldson, Slade Gorton, Paul Lawrence, Brad Keller, Tom Carr and Chris Van Dyk.

Special Preview Screening October 9 @ SIFF Cinema in Seattle (321 Mercer St.)
Tickets on sale now at the SIFF Website

$5 -- includes admission to Sonicsgate Afterparty at Spitfire! (2219 4th Ave)

SONICSGATE.ORG

I lifted this text right off SonicsCentral.com

http://www.sonicsgate.org/ WATCH TRAILER HERE and the countdown clock.

Check out the video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILmtdQGxZUU

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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Visit me here:
http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com

Portland Trailblazers will not call Seattle's KeyArena home for preseason game

2009-07-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

I guess Steve Kelley will have to catch a ride with Mighty Mouse and Resheed Wallace in that yellow Hummer going down south to Portland to watch his favorite NBA team play their scrubs against the Phoenix scrubs on October 14th.
Get a clue Steve, this was all about marketing the Blazers in the 13th largest media market, the largest media market in America without an NBA team.
This was not some pathetic chance for the good fans of Seattle to show anything to anybody. This was about marketng, as was your "story" about Brandon Roy asking if there would be a fan boycott, as are your stories from the summer league in Las Vegas. You are a tool for the NBA, knowngly, or unknowingly.

This had nothing to do with resolving the arena issue in Seattle, and bringing a team to Seattle to be the real home team.

In an interview last month, Tod Leiweke, CEO of Vulcan Sports & Entertainment, which oversees the Blazers, Seahawks and Sounders FC, said the Blazers want to play in Seattle because it made good business sense.

"This isn't designed to be some major statement," he said. "Those who are reading into that, they're just not reading it properly. I think relative to Portland, ownership has fought hard to make Portland work.

"There are lots of people in Seattle who still love the NBA and want to follow a team. It's only logical."

Reaction to the game was mixed when the news broke last month, but Miller said it didn't affect the team's decision.

"We didn't think that it was too soon to play there," he said. "We got a lot of positive feedback as well as some negative feedback and we just felt like the timing would have been OK and the situation would have been good."

Leiweke said the fiscal constraints of operating in a small market forced the Blazers to expand marketing in the Northwest. According to consulting firm ProAdvance, Portland is the 23rd largest media market in the nation and Seattle ranks 13th.

After the Sonics left for Oklahoma City, the Blazers received permission from the NBA to broadcast in the Seattle area and began televising games on Comcast Sports Net last season.

Read the Seattle Times Newspaper story: Blazers won't play exhibition here after all, by Percy Allen.

Don't insult us, thanks,
Mike Baker

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http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com

Donaldson is no help

2009-07-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

The thinning of the pack.

James Donaldson, the former Seattle Sonic, is the only candidate [for Mayor of Seattle] who is against using tax money to refurbish KeyArena to hopefully lure another NBA team to town. Also, Drago was the only candidate to say she was against electing City Council members by district instead of the current system of city-wide elections.
SeattlePI.com Seattle mayoral debate highlights

I kind of knew this, he said it about a year ago on KJR, and I had to guess he was either thinking that the entire time, or was awash in the loss of the franchise, now you know, and so do I.

Seattle Times' Steve Kelley, "David Stern says he expects Seattle to get another NBA team"

2009-07-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

Let's recap David Stern's position, and observation of the two meaningful facts, arena+Steve Ballmer=Sonics 2.0
The fans will show up in Seattle to watch THEIR team, they did, they will again, or at lease some of the 1.2 million people expected to move into the Seattle metropolitan area over the next ten years will (isn't that roughly the size of the Oklahoma City media market?). Showing up, or not, to a meaningless preseason game between the hated Portland Trailblazers (you miss being hated, don't ya) and the Phoenix Suns (the home and away, back to back games with GP facing Jason Kidd were epic contests set in the dead of Winter).
Show up, don't, it does not matter to the Sonics chances. The Blazers would get more respect if they just showed up at Green Lake and played there for an hour, a preseason grab for fans - not so much.

From Steve Kelley's Seattle Times column are three things everybody should hold in their heads when when others around you are imagineering a different picture of the Sonics rising again.

"The next step is really the right putative owner, who really wants to have a team and is prepared to do what it takes, working together with the city, the state to get an arena and get the job done," he said. "I think ultimately there will be [another team in Seattle]. I really do."
. . .
"I don't want to put the whammy on him [Steve Ballmer]," Stern said, "but he'd be a hell of an owner."
. . .
I asked Stern if this could be considered a hopeful sign for those of us who want the league in our town.

"I think it's just an attempt by Portland to do the right thing and show fans a good time," Stern said.

He was asked if he was concerned about a possible boycott of that game.

"I think the fans are entitled to do whatever they want to do," he said, beginning to move away. "It is an independent city. It always has been and I hope it always will be."
Steve Kelley gets the point here!

Here was my email that I fired of AT Steve Kelley when he whined about a possible boycott of a possible meaningless Blazer game:
Mr. Kelley,
When you end your column with,
"And look at it as a very small, but necessary, first step to welcoming back the NBA.", it capped so much that is wrong with your story.

The only first, and necessary first stem is to secure funding to remodel KeyArena. No matter how many fans attended games, protests, courtrooms, it will always and only come back to the arena.

You can call the Blazers your home team all you want, but the NBA will never call that arena a home in its current condition.

This game is no help to Seattle, just to Paul Allen's Portland Trailblazers, and sports writers.

Good luck putting lipstick on that pig.

Mike Baker
Seattle, Wa
Sonics fan

So, I will not expect Steve Balmer to Facebook Friend me anytime soon to lobby for that Blazer game.

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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Mr. Blazer, Steve Kelley, "Hatred for the NBA runs deep, but don't take it out on the players"

2009-07-04T15:46:00.000-07:00

Steve Kelley, Mr. Blazer:
It isn't an insult. It's a gift. It shouldn't be boycotted. It should be celebrated.

Celebrated? The completion of the theft? The sent marking of Paul Allen's Portland Trailblazers on KeyArena?
If Steve Kelley is too cheap to go to Portland, then I guess we celebrate Steve Kelley saving a train ticket.

It's a night to put aside your anger at the NBA and acknowledge that, underneath that anger, a love of the game still smolders.

it is a night for you to open mouth kiss your sweetheart, pro sports, butter your bread Steve.

I'll always love this game, even as I detest many of the people who run it and ran it out of this town.

As a newspaper writer you will not give them any of your hard earned cash, so, maybe you are writing this column to other media peope?
I do not plan to give Paul Allen's Portland Trailblazers, an NBA franchise, a dime while SEATTLE does not have a SONICS home team.

As far as the anger is concerned, I'm with you.

In words but not deeds.

Read all about Mr. Blazer, here!

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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Thanks for making a Nightmare come true Greg Nickels

2009-06-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

The Sonics are gone, but KeyArena will be the site of an exhibition Oct. 14 at KeyArena between their former Northwest rivals, the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Phoenix Suns.

Reported By Percy Allen, Seattle Times Newspaper

KeyArena is not good enough for the Sonics to call it home after 41 years. I see no good reason for the Portland Trailblazers to call it home for even one game.

The Mayor of Seattle, Greg Nickels sold out the lease two years early to franchise owners that have lost most of their wealth, to leave to a city struggling to pay for upgrades to the Ford Center.

Now that is a visionary, the guy that testified that "anything could happen" in those last two years choked.

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com

SeattlePI.com: Wash. treasury to see further revenue decrease

2009-06-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

The Special Session in October is timed to deal with the next economic forecast due September 27.

By then it should be clear that people are still not spending money they do not have on things people are too unsure that they should produce because there might not be a market for that unmade, unsold, not purchased, thing.

I'll offer KeyArena, and low-income housing as stimulus spending, using tourist taxes, as being a good idea.

Top lawmakers, meanwhile, said a special session of the Legislature is likely in October, if only to approve new school-spending and criminal justice policies that were not resolved during this year's regular legislative session.
www.seattlepi.com AP story linked here!

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

Sonics reach out to pet the dog, and the dog bits off 4.1 fingers

2009-06-06T16:04:00.000-07:00

SEATTLE - ESPN 710's Kevin Calabro had the "Highly Anticipated" interview with NBA Commish David Stern on Friday, June 5th.

(Show link and audio ishere!)

There was nothing new in the interview. There was nothing new in the reaction of the callers to the radio station afterward, either.

I think a few thoughts before listening to any interview with David Stern, I think he:
Does not own an NBA team, so he can not make promises involving something he does not own.

When talking to the press about a particular franchise he is paid to always take the position of the owner of a given franchise, that is why it looks like he is talking out of both sides of his mouth, they are not his words.

When talking to a particular owner he is speaking on behalf of the other 29 other owners.

He has the right as the Commish to rule on arenas and the revenue the league requires. So, he has said KeyArena needs a remodel paid for by mostly public money (Howard Schultz), then a new arena paid for by public money (Clayton Bennett), then a remodel of KeyArena would be fine and only half public money paid on the common public portions (Steve Ballmer).

A privately funded building would be fine if it were fine with some owner.
KeyArena would be fine as-is if some owner were willing to pay the league the balance of the revenue they require (10's of millions of dollars every year).

When talking to anybody about Seattle he has said the same thing for 7 years, his personal opinion is that he would rather have a team here.
I think that when he does give just his opinion that he really does want that to happen.
The problem is, I think, that he is rarely, ever, giving his opinion.

His "power" comes from the owners supporting what he says and does, voting on what they want him to say and do, and hiring him to say and do it through 2010.

The situation reminds me of a joke:
David Stern is standing next to a dog.

Sonics fans walk up to Mr. Stern and say, "does your dog bite?".

Stern says, "No."

Sonics reach out to pet the dog, and the dog bits off 4.1 fingers.

Sonics fans yell at Stern, WHAT the heck is wrong with you, you said your dog does not bite!!!!

Stern replies, "That's not my dog."

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

Commando Dave says "I'm throwin' a '79 SuperSonics Party!"

2009-05-31T15:11:00.001-07:00

Jalisco's, Floyd's Place, The Spectator, Sport, choices, choices.
Click on SuperSonics30.com and make your choice of where and when!
Have some FUN!

From: Commando Dave
Date: May 28, 2009 12:28:51 PM PDT
To: Communicate.with.Mike (at) gmail.com
Subject: I'm throwin' a '79 SuperSonics Party!

Hey Mike:

Check out http://SuperSonics30.com

Would be COOL if you were there!

Even COOLER if you "Blog it!"

Hope to see you.

Commando Dave

Point Man of the FANS REVOLUTION

@ http://WeTheFans.com

The Official Sports Fan Union

"T-Mobile exec challenging Nickels for Seattle mayor", KING5.com

2009-05-27T22:22:00.000-07:00

Candidate for Mayor, Joe Mallahan, says he supports a KeyArena remodel.

http://www.king5.com Joe Mallahan interview.

He is also not Jan Drago.

Have a great day,
Mike Baker
Sent from my iPhone
Visit me here:
http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com

KTAR.com: Why the outcome of the Coyotes case is about more than hockey

2009-05-23T08:27:00.000-07:00

What if a franchise in any professional sport could just move without the league rules stopping them?
Dan Weiss of KTAR asks the broader question of the bankruptcy proceedings involving the Phoenix Coyotes.

Tuesday, a bankruptcy judge in downtown Phoenix began listening to arguments that may ultimately determine the fate of the Phoenix Coyotes in the Valley of the Sun. As evidenced by the scant gathering at Saturday's "Save the Coyotes" rally (Winnipeg by the way had 36,000 people show up for their "Save the Jets" rally before they eventually moved to Phoenix!) and the general apathy expressed towards our local NHL entry over the last few years, it appears that few heads will turn whether the Coyotes stay or go.

This is an interesting point, but fan interest is such a minor component in owner interest in staying in a given market, but his point is well taken. Some markets are just not interested in a given business, to the degree that the business has failed.

Weiss goes on to the broader point facing major league sports:
But there's a bigger issue in play that transcends the Coyotes, Jerry Moyes, Jim Balsille, Phoenix, or Southern Ontario, and that's whether a bankruptcy court has the right to tell a professional sports league that its governing laws are flawed regarding the processes and procedures as to who can purchase a franchise and whether it can be relocated. Is there any wonder why the commissioners of the other three major leagues, the NFL, the NBA, and Major League Baseball, all came out in overwhelming support of the National Hockey League Monday? It's not because they like Gary Bettman or think he's doing a bang-up job of growing the game in the United States. It's because should Judge Redfield T. Baum eventually award the Coyotes to Mr. Balsille and allow him to circumvent the NHL's by-laws regarding ownership and franchise relocation and move them to Hamilton, he would essentially be granting a possible "get out of jail free" card to every professional sports owner in North America who is unhappy in their current situation. Ultimately, that could have the potential to create a virtual anarchy across the sporting landscape by individual ownership against their respective leagues.

Imagine being trapped in making a franchise work in a city where it clearly is not. Now you have two things stopping you, Bob Johnson, from relocating; your leases, and your league rules.
By-laws be damned, I'm moving to Southern Ontario (or Kansas City, Seattle, San Jose, Vancouver)?
Really?
Well, yes, that is a possible outcome. As Mr. Weiss points out, 15 NBA teams borrowed money for operations this year. How many of them would sell and move if they could?
What does the sudden lack of scarcity do to a product?

The fact is that no matter how this case pans out the NBA and the City of Seattle have both advised us that scarcity is not what it was. So, Bob Johnson putting his Bobcats up for sale in the worst economy in decades "wants between $325 million and $350 million".

$350 million? Not in a million years.
If any owner of a sports franchise can move without the league say-so then more teams are free to move. More teams being able to move increases the lack of scarcity, driving its price down. Sure, Clay Bennett had a point that there are only 30 NBA franchises, but being able to fold up your tent and move at any time your lease allows increases risk to the community, and lowers the value. Another team will show up in a couple years in a top 15 media market.

Read Dan Weiss' full story here!
Have a great day,
Mike Baker
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SeattlePI.com: McGinn: Viaduct tunnel 'endangers' Seattle's future

2009-05-11T11:59:00.000-07:00

Mayoral candidate Michael McGinn was interviewed by SeattlePI.com's Chris Grygiel.
Here is the short of it.

Tunnel bad, surface/I-5 expansion good (I agree).

High cost is bad (I agree).

Cars and oil are bad (a mass transit that does not completely run on oil and is sized appropriately for every use I call busses and electric cars, we have one and the other is coming in 2010, so fix the roads already).

Fence sitting on KeyArena and Seattle Center. He gave no solution to an anchor tenant if that is not the NBA. He did not say anything about the $540 million dollar master plan for Seattle Center that does not account for KeyArena or how to pay for it, or how to justify paying for it without an anchor tenant in . . . KeyArena.

He's green (I think he has a fixed idea of what that is, and his funding sources like him that way). He needs to tie tunnel spending to the sidewalks not being built anytime soon if I am ever going to think about voting for him.

He's a people person (I'm people).

Read the interviewright here!

Have a great day,
Mike Baker
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Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles: Will push for stadium bill in special session

2009-05-09T15:52:00.001-07:00

This story cross-posted from my new/old blog ManyWordsForRain.blogger.com, that's where I will transition to when this is all over. I will post different stories there, and post in both places depending on the story.

SEATTLE - It appears we have somebody beyond Sonics fans that actually cares about KeyArena and Seattle Center. Sure, Seattle Center is in Jeanne Kohl-Welles' State Senatorial district.

But let's not act as if it were not the responsibility of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, and the Seattle City Council, you know, people running for re-election.

She is being public about her role and responsibility, how refreshing. Let's hope, for this city's sake, she makes this work in September.

Read the story here: www.tvw.org sen-jeanne-kohl-welles-will-push-for-stadium-bill-in-special-session
Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

Seattle Times: Lawmakers say no special legislative session

2009-05-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

In the unlikely event they call a Special Session in June, I'll post
something about that activity (or non-activity).
I might stick around for the funeral the city will have.

The city has a problem, among many, and none will get any help from
the legislature.
Time for Seattle to just worry about Seattle.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009190806_websession07m.html

Thank you Brian, Steve, Adam, Ed Murray, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, and Ross
Hunter for being somebody.

Thank you "Anonymous", Peter, DBF, posters and the unusually large
number of readers.

I have no idea what happens now, but I know what is not going to
happen. I am not letting a few people off the hook, that got us here,
the place we never should have been.

I like to write, I'll write about something else, sooner or later, and
I will leave a link here when I figure it out. I have a strange
feeling it will be politics.

This is not likely my last footprint here, I just wanted to catch a
few people before they headed to the exits.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

Question on Real Change News story for Frank Chopp on affordable housing

2009-05-04T18:23:00.001-07:00

From:Mr Baker

communicate.with.mike ( at ) gmail.com>
Date: May 3, 2009 8:11:27 PM PDT
To:
chopp.frank (at) leg.wa.gov
Subject: Question on Real Change News story, affordable housing

Mr. Chopp,
I had read in Real Change a story about getting creative about funding affordable housing, and arts in King County. Is it true that House Bill 2252 would have funded $8 million a year in affordable housing near transit centers?
Please consider this bill, or something like it in the special session. $8 million would be a big boost in a tough time.
I looked up the bill and it looks like it was replaced by a Senate bill, which died due to Husky Stadium latching on to local taxes. Could that Senate bill get revived?

http://www.realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/1717/

Have a great day,
Mike Baker
Seattle

Seattle Times: King County facing hard choices with social-service programs

2009-05-04T18:20:00.001-07:00

King County's turn to make tough cuts. They were hoping for the state to pass legislation (see the story here) to help them out. Just how much help would SB6116 had given King County? Go ask Lisa Brown and Frank Chopp.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

I want the other Lisa Brown

2009-05-03T11:41:00.001-07:00

I want the Lisa Brown that signed this letter to re-appear, and be true to her word.

Here is the letter from Chris Gregoire, Frank Chopp, and Lisa Brown to David Stern and the NBA, asking them not to vote to relocate away from Seattle.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

It's the booze talkin'

2009-05-01T21:10:00.001-07:00

My beer cap has more common sense than sometimes even I display.

"Listen
Then
Discuss"

Indeed, my advise to others at this point is not any more complicated than that three word gift from my beer.

Seattle Times: Nickels seeks tax boost for affordable housing in Seattle

2009-04-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

On Monday I sent the governor my plea for inclusion of SB 6116 in the special session that will be called after a cooling off period, and some negotiations between interested parties.
Great!
The next day, Tuesday, the SeattlePI.com runs a story on SB 6116 not passing.

Welcome to Wednesday, and this in the Seattle Times, Nickels seeks tax boost for affordable housing in Seattle.
Naturally, the natives are restless, even revolting (in all its definitions).

So, let's cut to the chase, shall we?

Dear Mr. Mayor,
Say something to relieve these poor souls of this burden, find a way to do the right thing, the right way, in public, for once on this bill and issue (low-income housing, what did you think I was referring to?).

Have a great day,

Mr Baker

Begin forwarded message:

From: Mr Baker <communicate.with.mike (at) gmail.com>
Date: April 29, 2009 11:30:50 AM PDT
To: "nick.licata (at) seattle.gov" <nick.licata (at) seattle.gov>
Cc: "Sen. Murray" <Murray.Edward (at) leg.wa.gov>, "Hunter, Rep. Ross" <hunter.ross (at) leg.wa.gov>, "byoung (at) Seattletimes.com" <byoung (at) Seattletimes.com>
Subject: Nickels seeks tax boost for affordable housing in Seattle

Mr. Licata,
I have a great idea for the City of Seattle. How about the mayor and city council make a public effort to get Ed Murray's SB 6116 into the Special Session as a way to fund afordable housing for Seattle and the entire county.
This would not be subject to a city or county vote. And, raising property-tax levy right now would get crushed at the polls.

Ref:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009144690_webhousinglevy29m.html

Thanks for your time,
Mike Baker
Seattle
Sent from my iPhone

SeattlePI.com: KeyArena bill could come back to life in special session

2009-04-28T17:23:00.001-07:00

A cat should have as many lives, Senate Bill 6116 has had many declarations of death, all premature.
SB6116 is the bill that did not beat the end of the legislative session's schedule, and would provide funding for low-income housing, arts, and Seattle Center's KeyArena.

Read the story at www.seattlepi.com

The last amendment, just before the end of the legislative session, was 6116-S AMS MURR S3250.1
(Floor Amendment 554). This cuts husky stadium out of the bill, though I am not sure why other sections not identified in the amendment would not stand, including low-income housing, arts, and youth athletic facilities.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

I apologize to Washington State Senator Ed Murray

2009-04-26T23:41:00.000-07:00

In an unusual twist a blogger will freely apologize.
I apologize to Washington State Senator Ed Murray for a prior story questioning whether or not he was killing his own bill.

I had been contacted by those that prefer to remain anonymous, and there were a few pointed comments that simply were not fair, not to him or me. I suggest that if somebody else has issues with Ed Murray (and you know who you are) that you contact him directly.

Back to Mr. Murray.

This is blog entry is very disappointing. This is how you treat your friends and supporters? I worked hard on this bill and got it out of committee with a bipartisan vote. I started to lose my GOP support after they where worked over by cougar fans. How disappointing.
Senator Ed Murray

All fair points, and all quite true, and we should all grasp the facts as tightly as we do our own opinions (including yours truly).

Senator Murray, let me know how I can help you move the rest of what is in the bill forward.

SB6616 had Husky stadium essentially stripped out of it with a Striker amendment to SB6116.

The questions become: does the rest of the bill come back in a special session?

Yes, I'd like KeyArena solution (as it is a little white elephant without one), but even bigger I am building a billion dollar light rail system and nobody can afford to build affordable housing. Having lived in "affordable" housing, I know what a lot of people don't know, and I hope as many others at least have that.

The arts were screwed, let's leave it at that. They could use some real support that doesn't come and go with the whims of economies and legislatures. A long term solution for King County is there in SB6116

Had the needs driven the press rather than the sensational wants we might have had a better chance, maybe not, I don't know anymore.

Back to toiling.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

Ed Murray Killing his own Bill?

2009-04-26T16:15:00.000-07:00

[editor's note, I made a mistake, and later apologized].

I am being asked by donors to the Dem Party why State Senator Ed Murray is actively killing his own bill, SB6116, beyond his own distructive amendment that he filed just a few short days ago.
The arts community, low-income housing proponents have to wonder how that helps anybody, to kill this bill.

I am at a loss for words, for them, or you. Time is very short.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

SonicsCentral.com : Please call the state legislature!

2009-04-23T07:29:00.001-07:00

Bills like fences are amended where they are broken. As has been mentioned everywhere, including SonicsCentral.com, Senate Bill 6116 has been passed out of Rules Committee and to the Senate floor for voting.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

SB 6116 Spoiler Alert

2009-04-20T18:12:00.000-07:00

Spoiler Alert!
Stop reading if you have lost all hope!

Substitute Senate Bill 6116 has been posted to the bill's home page. Language that fulfills the terms of the settlement between The City of Seattle and Clayton Bennett is located on page 11.

I have read it, I will have to read it again to see where the money really goes, and I have a spreadsheet from house bill 2252 in my coat pocket, and it is such a nice day that the pocket is in the coat, in the closet.

It looks like low-income housing and arts infrastructure is about to get tens of millions of dollars.

It also looks like Seattle only keeps Seattle generated money if a team is secured by 2013, and that there is at least $150 million in private finds, in 2008 dollars, adjusted for inflation.

This does have a chance of passing, a pretty good chance.

A week to go, and Green has been golden, Murray is a champion.

Thanks to you Margarita, and the Ways and Means Committee.

A week to go, feels like forever.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

6116 Out of Ways and Means

2009-04-18T17:15:00.000-07:00

Voted at 5:15pm, SB6116 was passed out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

There is a NEW clause that by 2013 Seattle has an NBA team then they get a porting of the fund for KeyArena.

SB 6116 Added to Today's Seanate Ways and Means Committee Meeting Agenda

2009-04-18T15:08:00.001-07:00

This is a very good sign, it is in the Executive Session for discussion, amending and/or voting in committee.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?year=2009&bill=6116

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

Fwd: Friends and Sonics fans - last chance to help save Seattle Center and get a new team

2009-04-17T05:36:00.001-07:00

Last chance, public pressure?

Where are the low-income housing advocates (that's you Frank Chopp) , arts advocates, and Chris Van Dyke (he supported with testimony SB6116), where is the political leadership from King County?

Have a great day,

Mr. Baker

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Adam Brown <adamb83@gmail.com>
Date: April 16, 2009 8:01:36 PM PDT
To: "sonicsfansunited@yahoo.com" <sonicsfansunited@yahoo.com>
Subject: Friends and Sonics fans - last chance to help save Seattle Center and get a new team

Friends and Sonics faithful:

I had to let you know about proposed legislation that would create jobs, fund the arts, save Seattle Center and give us a really good shot at getting a team back in the next couple years! If the Wash. State Legislature passes Senate Bill 6116 or amends House Bill 2552 to include Seattle Center, Steve Ballmer will buy a new team (Sonics 2.0) and contribute 50% to a KeyArena remodel! But as of right now, it doesn't look like this will pass before the April 26 deadline.

SB6116 is a great bill for a lot of reasons besides just basketball. Please take a couple minutes to read the following letter and, if you agree, call the Wash State Legislative Hotline at 800.562.6000 and tell them you are in favor of SB 6116. They take your address and automatically send your message to the Governor and the legislators in your district.

Thanks! You can doooo iiiiiiiiit!

- Adam Brown

***Sonics Faithful – One Last Shot at Getting a New Team and Saving Seattle Center!***

The fight for the Sonics in Seattle is not over yet! We need your help to make one final push before the 2009 state legislative session ends on April 26!

The Washington State Legislature is currently considering Senate Bill 6116, which would allow King County to use existing restaurant and car rental taxes to create a dedicated funding source for the arts community, cultural centers, low income housing and regional public facilities including Seattle Center and KeyArena.

Call the State Legislative Hotline now at 800.562.6000 and tell them you support SB6116!

WE NEED YOU NOW SONICS FAITHFUL! This is our last chance to get a new team in Seattle. All our hard work has come down to this moment, and we must not allow our legislators to waste this opportunity. Here are just a few of the many reasons to pass SB6116:

1.       Save Seattle Center – The lower Queen Anne area has struggled in recent years, becoming an outdated shadow of the economic and cultural cornerstone it was for 40+ years. The City of Seattle currently has no funding source in place for the unanimously approved Seattle Center Century 21 Master Plan, a $570 million public infrastructure project that will bring the grounds into the modern era over the next 20 years. SB6116 would provide that funding source for much needed campus improvements without creating any new taxes or tapping the general fund.

2.       Jobs and Economic Stimulus – A modern, vibrant Seattle Center with additional funding for arts and cultural centers all over King County will create thousands of jobs and increase tourism from out-of-towners, providing a sorely needed infrastructure investment during this recession economy. The bill also provides funding for low-income housing and youth recreation facilities. Two words: JOB CREATION.

3.       Attaining Private Investment in Public Facilities – As outlined in Mayor Nickels' settlement agreement that allowed the Sonics to break their lease and leave town, the city/state must pass some form of arena legislation in 2009 to get an additional $30 million from Clay Bennett if no team comes to Seattle by 2013. A local investment group led by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer promised to contribute $150 million plus cost overruns in private money toward a $300 million remodel of KeyArena and buy a new NBA team for Seattle! If the state approves SB6116, the entire region benefits by getting a massive public works project for only 25% of the full cost, with 50% from Ballmer and the final 25% coming from a ticket tax on KeyArena events.

4.       Small Investment, Big Payoff – According to the KeyArena Subcommittee Report, "KeyArena will need capital investments of at least $20 million to remain competitive even without the Sonics." If you spend $50 in a bar, the current tax is only $0.25 on your bill; a quarter that you probably don't even notice! These "tourism taxes" are already in place, and it will be a lot more difficult to pass a new tax later. So when you factor in the $30 million from Bennett or the $150 million from Ballmer, the benefits of passing SB6116 and the relatively tiny cost make it a no-brainer!

5.       Bring Back the Sonics – It has been a cold, dreary winter without our team, but as many as 10 NBA teams are currently for sale. If SB6116 passes, there is an extremely good chance that Steve Ballmer will bring Sonics 2.0 back to Seattle within a year or two!

Call the Legislative Hotline now at 800.562.6000 and tell them to pass SB6116!

20 days to go on Monday

2009-04-04T18:51:00.000-07:00

On Monday the Washington State Legislature will land on day 85 of the session, with 20 to go, and no plans for going beyond. The budget bills, as well as the appropriations bill have had hearings in the various committees. They next move into some hardcore deal making and amending, with the product possibly being a vote of the people later in the year to ask for two billion dollars for "green" school remodeling, it's the right thing to do and it would generate jobs, they say.

As the focus of the budget shifts to this refinement period, I found myself this morning tapping out an email on my phone to Senator Ed Murray to ask him to not forget, and ask him if there is anything I can do. Last week I had an email come my way from the very busy Ross Hunter, and through the exchange with Hunter he said he would "work with Ed".
So, Ed, what shall we do with Ross' HB 2252 and your SB 6116?
How can I help you?

While that email washes around in the sea of late session emails to legislators, I likely will find myself tapping out a few more, to a few others, asking to help. I know I am in no position to help, other than to remind everybody that I know what time it is, that being now.

Luck has nothing to do with it, it's all effort, but good luck anyway Ed.

Locally collected Tax Inches Closer to King County's Control

2009-03-19T13:30:00.000-07:00

(you can listen to the podcast here)
Ways & Means* - 03/18/09 1:30 pm
Full Committee
Senate Hearing Rm 4
J.A. Cherberg Building
Olympia, WA

The March 18th Senate Ways and Means Committee meeting in the Washington State Legislature provided an interesting opportunity for testimony to be heard on bills that would fund a variety of activities in King County, including funding for arts and heritage programs, tourism promotion, youth sport activities, regional centers, publicly owned stadiums, community development, and low income housing.

House Bill ESHB 2252 passed in the House on March 12th and was picked up by the senate committee. The senate has its own bill, SB 6116, but there are differences. The hearing gave public officials, and the general public, an opportunity to compare the two bills and voice their preferences.

Some differences between the two bills are few, but major.
ESHB2252 does not have as many taxes extending beyond the years 2012, 2015 and 2021. It does not provide funding or language in the bill to support stadiums and arenas, including capital improvements and maintenance for the existing Safeco and Qwest stadiums. This was a concern of Senator Zarelli, who vowed to ensure that any bill the moves forward include language that does not lead the Seattle Mariners to a "Sonic incident".

ESHB252 also is much more prescriptive and restrictive in its dividing of the funding between arts and heritage programs, regional centers, human services, low-income housing, and community development.

SB6116, that appeared to be the favorite among proponents of any bill, provides King County greater flexibility by listing some percentages of how some of the revenue should be divided, and a ranked priority list of subjects, but it leaves the finer management of the revenue to the King County Council.

SB6116 also extends taxes not included included in the House bill to pay for all of it.

Here is section 6 of the bill
SB 6116:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. A new section is added to chapter 67.28 RCW to read as follows:
Money deposited in a special purposes account under this section may be used only for the following purposes within the county:
(1) Funding tourism promotion as defined in RCW 67.28.080;
(2) Funding youth or amateur sports activities or facilities;
(3) Funding regional centers or performing arts centers, but excluding regional centers or performing arts centers within:
(a) Cities with a population of one hundred thousand or more; and
(b) Cities described in RCW 35.57.010(1)(d);
(4) Maintaining or improving publicly owned stadiums or arenas;
(5) Funding community development; and/or
(6) Funding low-income housing.

Maybe this gets into the House bill, maybe it doesn't. If any stadium language is wanted in the House bill it may be difficult to do. The House rules make it difficult to insert language into the body of a bill that is not similar to the title of the bill. I know it sounds crazy, but it is true.

Unlike the US Congress we cannot make random amendments to bills - they have to be related to the topic in the bill and described by the title of the bill. Crafting titles is somewhat of a legislative art. RossHunter.com

Although, Ross Hunter did testify in the committee meeting that he thinks the house bill could be used to insert language from SB6116, "either bill could work".

Which bill moves forward is still unknown, and in what form. ESHB2252 may be amended by the senate, or substituted by the senate bill SB6116 with some minor adjustments to make it more passible by the House.

I do think that one way, or another, a bill has to pass because the funding for the arts, 4Culture, is set to expire this summer. Funding for low-income housing could also take a big hit.

I will keep an eye out for activity, and post it in the comments of this thread.

County Tax Proposals to have Hearing in Ways & Means Committee on March 18th

2009-03-13T22:23:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, reported in the Seattle PI, House Bill 2252 passed in the Washington State Legislature.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The state House wants to extend some taxes that paid for professional sports stadiums in Seattle.

Right now, the taxes on restaurant sales and rental cars are supposed to expire after the football and baseball stadiums are paid off. A bill approved 54-42 by the House on Thursday would keep the taxes going longer, with the money flowing into a special account to pay for housing projects, the arts and other programs.

The account is not supposed to be source for a new NBA arena or Husky Stadium.

The restaurant tax would eventually expire. A third tax on hotel rooms also would flow into the special account.

The bill now moves to the Senate.

As was mentioned on March 7th, here and elsewhere, Senate Bill 6116 was introduced by enators Ed Murray and Jeanne Kohl-Welles. SB6116 was similar to House Bill 2252 except that it did include support for stadiums and arenas, and extended the food and beverage tax (restaurant tax) as a funding source.

House Bill 2252 was passed by the House, and has moved on to the Senate Ways & Means Committee. Both bills, HB2252 and SB6116 are on the March 18th agenda for public hearing.

Along with the now somewhat familiar HB2252 and SB6116 is another bill, Senate Bill 6118.
Who?
Why that is one of the Senate's versions of House Bill 2250 (what?). Ok, does the Convention Center ring any bells? This one is the skim off money for a museum. Hey, that's what the county tax does, only for county and city museums. This is confusing, I hope they can reconcile all these bills.

1 bill passed by the House on the county taxes.
1 sponsored by two Senators (one being Ed Murray) on the county taxes.
1 bill for funding the convention center account with a new Section 3: a 2% tax, to be used under RCW 82.14. sure, museums are part of RCW 82.14, everybody nows that, but so are stadiums, RCW 82.14.049 (like I had t tell you, half of the husky nation has this written on the palms of their hands thinking they have a date with a pile of cash, not so fast dawg-boy).

The last bill on the agenda, that's the housing trust fund that pays for low-income housing, as is mentioned in both of the county bills.

All in one day, all in the same hearing, imagine that.

I have linked below to the bills (including the one about booze, I'm going to need it).

Ways & Means* - 03/18/09 1:30 pm
Full Committee
Senate Hearing Rm 4
J.A. Cherberg Building
Olympia, WA

REVISED 3/13/2009 11:47 AM

Public Hearing:
SB 6119 - Limiting the discount of purchases of spirits by licensees.

SB 6116 - Funding arts and heritage programs, tourism promotion, youth sport activities, regional centers, publicly owned stadiums, community development, and low income housing in a county with a population of one million five hundred thousand or more.

ESHB 2252 - Funding for arts and heritage programs, regional centers, human services, low-income housing, and community development in a county with a population of one million five hundred thousand or more. (If measure is referred to committee.)

SB 6118 - Concerning lodging taxes for, and certain transfers from, the state convention and trade center account.

SHB 1250 - Concerning the housing trust fund.

Possible executive session on bills heard in committee. Other business.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

I am easily offended

2009-03-08T12:26:00.000-07:00

Somebody in the Crosscut comments section of a story Jean Godden had written said I was ignorant and a liar. I thought I should just repost my strange collection of other people's opinions here and then I can just repost a link in different places to save all that typing. Not only am I a liar, but I guess I'm lazy too.
Here:
Yes, I want to bond and build. It employs people now, and builds stuff that hangs around for a long time. but that $15 million a year is the first I have heard that it would cost that, where do you get your numbers from?

I know I'm just making it all up from what others (Nick Licata Chris Van Dyk, Dino Rossi, the Seattle City Council, that devil Mr Ceis) have said.

From SeattlePI
Last updated February 29, 2008 10:01 p.m. PT
A bid to keep NBA team in KeyArena emerges
Investors reportedly led by Griffin would help refurbish venue

City Councilman Nick Licata has supported efforts to limit tax spending on a new arena. If a plan emerges similar to what Licata has heard is in the works, he might be on board.

"I'm giving it serious consideration," Licata said. "I think that the bottom line for me is that it's a fair deal for both the city and the investors. I've never said flatly, 'No public funds.' "

In November 2006, Seattle voters overwhelmingly approved a measure restricting public subsidies for pro sports teams. Initiative 91 prohibits Seattle from contributing city tax dollars unless such investments yield a profit on par with a 30-year U.S. Treasury bond.

The suggested plan could comply with the measure, said Chris Van Dyk, who led the I-91 campaign.

"The key thing is that if it addresses the use of public funds in a positive way and allocates those public funds toward the public places and the public infrastructure," Van Dyk said. "If (new team owners) do that in a genuine and on the table (way, providing) a significant infusion of money, I don't see that I-91 is a problem."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/353269_sonicstalks01.html

Yes, you caught me, I do not have the numbers right in front of me. I guess I should get the dirty details from NBA advocate Chris Van Dyk, I may have been telling lies just to get the NBA back in Seattle. He's ignorant and filling my head with ignorance just to satisfy his basketball-jones. RATS!

Tell CVD he's a liar, I'll watch, it'll be fun.

How about that $250,000 a year in office space the Sonics were renting, nope, don't miss that.

How much B & O tax does a $400 million dollar company pay? There is another ignorant thing I'm posting, taxes, who needs that.

Oh, here is a known liar, Dino Rossi:
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Rossi says plan for KeyArena is too good to ignore

In addition to the roughly $20 million in sales tax revenue that the state could bring in from the remodel arena itself, the Rossi campaign said, the new facility "could generate $25 million over 10 years through sales and (business) taxes on Sonics-related operations."

State Department of Revenue spokesman Mike Gowrylow said it's difficult to calculate revenue estimates on the operations at KeyArena without more-specific information, but the estimate was within the range of possibilities.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/354680_rossi12.html?source=mypi

Last franchise was here for a little longer than ten years, the state makes out ok, but it is all lies, and I'm ignorant, and just making all this up.

Here are the links to the pitch Tim Ceis gave t the state task force in December on Seattle center and Key Arena, there is all kinds of stuff in there that Ceis made up that I just believed.
Here is the meeting from Dec 1
http://www.leg.wa.gov/joint/committees/lfokc/meetings.htm
and direct links:
heres' 1
http://www.leg.wa.gov/documents/joint/lfokc/2008-12-01SeattleCenter1.pdf

and here is 2
http://www.leg.wa.gov/documents/joint/lfokc/2008-12-01SeattleCenter2.pdf

KeyArena is about 380,000 sf of enclosed space, a remodel would enclose the exterior beams for restaurants and retail space, enlarging the enclosed space to 720,000 sf (I'm making that up too), and adding a second ramp down to the floor so the big shows can get on and off the floor, and on to the next city, in a more resonable amount of time. tear down and prep for the next event is wasted time and lost revenue, just ask the convention center folks.
For some strange reason I think adding restaurants and retail to the exterior of the KeyArena bowl is a good thing for the Seattle Center site, just my opinion. I also think that having people come to Seattle Center for more events, and having an anchor tenant is a good idea, but that's not my opinion, that's the Seattle City Council crazy talk during Seattle Center subcommittee meeting comments on why a break even proposition with the Seattle Storm was a good thing for Seattle, and Seattle Center. Call Jean a liar about that one, she was there. Or, does this just apply to professional womens basketball?

Parks and Seattle Center Committee January 27, 2009
Link to video: http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=2050902

When I'm not here being called a liar I update a little blog on this particular topic:
http://seattlecenterarenareboot.blogspot.com/

There, that was fun.
What some people might want t know is that when I post someplace it is almost always as "Mr. Baker". It is pretty easy to get Mr. xx as a user name,it is easy to remember too.

Hopes for Seattle Center's KeyArena in Political Limbo

2009-03-07T09:42:00.000-08:00

Washington State House Bill 2281 was referred to Rules Committee on second reading. This bill is related to HB2179 Authorizing cities to provide and contract for supplemental transportation improvements, sponsored by Representative Deb Eddy. How? The transportation "improvements" are paid fr by a .02% sales tax in King County (also, if you look at the draft of HB2281 in the upper right-hand corner it references H-2179.1).

So, HB2281, HB2179, and a raft of other bills are referred to the Rules Committee to sort out.

If/when a bill comes out of Rules Committee it has a reasonable chance of being different than when it entered and a chance to be voted on and passed.

HB2281 (and 2179) made the Second Cut-off date when a bill can be introduced, Senate Bill 6116 did not.

Senate Bill SB6116 did not make the cut-off, but that does not mean that it is dead, far from it.

Remember, whatever the House passes eventually has to be agreed to by the Senate. SB6116 was sponsored by Ed Murray and Jeanne Kohl-Welles.

Who are they? Senators Ed Murray is "Majority Caucus Chair", and a member of the Senate Rules Committee, and from the same 43rd district as Frank Chopp [edit, not Ross Hunter]. Jeanne Kohl-Welles is the Chairperson of Labor Commerce & Consumer Protection, as well as a member of the Senate Rules Committee.

They have expressed their opinion and preferences in their bill, SB6116. All of these bills need to be reconciled into an agreed to bill that both houses can vote on and pass.

Here is the list of bills that made the cut-off:
BILLS OUT OF COMMITTEE

As noted in the document, a bill not listed is not dead, that includes Murray's SB6116 (not listed), HB2281 and 2179 are listed.
Once these bills are resolved they could go back to their respective committees, or they could get referred to another committee for voting and passing with recommendation to "do-pass" to the respective houses of legislature (just like in the other Washington).

So, what is on the legislative calendar for today?
Senate Session/Caucus 3/7/2009 9:30 AM
House Possible Session/Caucus 3/7/2009 10:00 AM
The next house Finance Committee meeting is 3/12/09

Call the legislative hot-line at 800-562-6000 and support Senate Bill 6116.
Or, write to your legislator, find them here, fill out the form, input the bill number (6116) and click "Support".
It is a lot like voting, only, they know who you are, and there is an actual person's name from their district supporting the legislation.
You could contact Ed Murray here, and Jeanne Kohl-Welles, and let him know that you support his bill, 6116.

Who is on the House Rules Committee?

Chopp, Frank (D) Chair
LEG 339C(360) 786-7920

DeBolt, Richard (R) *
LEG 335C(360) 786-7896

Armstrong, Mike (R)
LEG 426A(360) 786-7832

Bailey, Barbara (R)
JLOB 406(360) 786-7914

Eddy, Deborah (D)
LEG 132D(360) 786-7848

Ericks, Mark (D)
JLOB 203(360) 786-7900

Green, Tami (D)
JLOB 327(360) 786-7958

Hasegawa, Bob (D)
JLOB 425(360) 786-7862

Hinkle, Bill (R)
JLOB 401(360) 786-7808

Hudgins, Zachary (D)
LEG 438A(360) 786-7956

Johnson, Norm (R)
JLOB 414(360) 786-7810

Kelley, Troy (D)
JLOB 319(360) 786-7890

Kessler, Lynn (D)
LEG 339A(360) 786-7904

Kretz, Joel (R)
LEG 335A(360) 786-7988

Kristiansen, Dan (R)
LEG 427A(360) 786-7967

Liias, Marko (D)
JLOB 434(360) 786-7972

Moeller, Jim (D)
LEG 436A(360) 786-7872

Morrell, Dawn (D)
JLOB 331(360) 786-7968

Morris, Jeff (D)
LEG 430(360) 786-7970

Santos, Sharon Tomiko (D)
LEG 434A(360) 786-7944

Schmick, Joe (R)
JLOB 419(360) 786-7844

Springer, Larry (D)
LEG 132E(360) 786-7822

Van De Wege, Kevin (D)
JLOB 316(360) 786-7916

Warnick, Judy (R)
JLOB 403(360) 786-7932

*Ranking Minority Member

Have a wonky weekend!

SeattleWeekly.com: Medina Rep to the Rescue

2009-03-04T11:21:00.000-08:00

KeyArena is not quite dead in the state legislature. In a story about state representative Ross Hunter possibly running for the King County Executive position vacated by Washington D.C. bound Ron Sims reporter Laura Onstot mentions that there is a placeholder bill in the legislature that might be used to address local funding for a KeyArena remodel.

As noted below, the bill is an empty vessel, with a title that says nothing about the intent of the bill. Welcome to Washington State, where if there is a door, it is closed and people are behind it negotiating a deal.

Hunter has also been going to bat for the city. He currently co-chairs a legislative task force to determine possibilities for remodeling KeyArena in the hopes of attracting a new NBA team. Hunter says he won't use state money for the project, but did offer to craft a bill that would allow Seattle to levy a city-wide tax to pay for the project. The city declined, but the deal isn't entirely dead. Hunter has kept a bill sponsored by Eric Pettigrew (D-Seattle) alive in his finance committee. The bill itself contains only a name—the visitor destination campus act of 2009—but keeps the issue on the table in Olympia if the city manages to come up with a plan to finance a remodel that doesn't involve using state money, Hunter says.
Medina Rep to the Rescue, by Laura Onstot.

Here is a placeholder bill HB2281's legislative home
Relating to the visitor destination campus act of 2009.
[edited 6:02 pm] As mentioned at SonicsCentral.com, SB6116 dropped today. Unlike the house bill that acted as a placeholder, SB6116 has full text, including new section 6 to the legislation that actually has the word "arenas" in it.
Thank you state senator Ed Murray.

On the House side you have Ross Hunter writing these bills trying to solve these issues, on the Senate side we have Ed Murray. We are lucky to have both.

This bill, I hope, will address the entire 74 acre Seattle Center site. With 53 days left in the legislative session there is enough time for this bill to die and live again, and again, and again.

Meanwhile over at SonicsCentral.com Brian Robinson is asking people to give a call to the legislative hotline to encourage state lawmakers to consider supporting a solution to KeyArena before the end of the session.
Legislative Hotline: 800-562-6000

There are $30 million dollars on the line from Clay Bennett, or a remodeled KeyArena with an NBA team. If the legislature acts then either option is possible. If they do not act it will be a very long time before another solution comes along.

Mayor Nickels, what is the plan now?

2009-02-27T11:18:00.000-08:00

An open letter to City of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels:
Mr. Nickels,
Why did the city support Ross Hunter's HB 2250 for the convention center? David Foster, your lobbyist, was identified in today's legislative meeting in support of the project but declined to testify.
Washington State Legislative bill cutoff has passed and I do not see a bill in direct support of Seattle Center, and yet the convention center is getting a go-ahead to figure out what they are going to do and then come back in a year with an actual plan. I understand that they want to secure the county air space (space above the county land), but what they have effectively done is to have taken the 2% sales tax matching portion back to the state right now (understandable), but then they claim its use through at least through 2030. On some level the city, you, have to agree to this as the local municipality.

If this is not the mechanism for the city to retain state funding authority for Seattle Center, and possibly KeyArena, then what is?

What's the plan now that you have agreed through city support of the convention center?

Thank you for your time.

Stadium Bill, HB 2252, Sponsored by State Representative Hunter

2009-02-17T16:53:00.001-08:00

Washington State Representative Ross Hunter's has posted on his Bills Sponsored page House Bill 2252 that pays for, in part, Acquiring, constructing, maintaining, or operating public
12 sports stadium facilities.
This is the county-wide sales tax on hotels, restaurant, and car rentals that the University of Washington's Husky Stadium. This may also be the source of revenue to pay 1/4 the cost of remodeling KeyArena. It was my understanding from proposals made to the legislature last year that the City of Seattle was requesting 1% of the funds generated from a 7% hotel tax that is collected just in the city that is slated for the Washington State Convention & Trade Center's expansion. It may eventually become the source, but in its current form the bill that pays for the convention center, House Bill 2250, makes no mention of Seattle Center or KeyArena. For that matter, House Bill 2252 doesn't directly mention Seattle Center or KeyArena either.

I expect one of these bills to change in order to satisfy the settlement agreement between the City of Seattle and Clay Bennett. Bennett is on the hook for 30 million dollars if the state and city approve a revenue source for the arena remodel and a team can not be located by 8/17/2013 to play in it. Finding a team doesn't look like too much a problem in the current state of the economy, but there is not good reason to overlook a 30 million dollar technicality.

Stay tuned.

Hunter, Chopp, Closer to KeyArena Solution

2009-02-14T11:29:00.000-08:00

As noted in a prior story, on February 12th USAToday.com story No buzz about NBA returning to Seattle AP Reporter Tim Booth had unknowingly passes along the missing piece in the arena puzzle to KeyArena rebuild hopefuls like me.
The reporter, Tim Booth, summarized Washington State House Finance Committee Chairman Ross Hunter, D-Madina, statements thusly, "he was working with House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, on a plan for stadium funding that everybody can live with, but wasn't willing to disclose any details."

In the past 3 years Frank Chopp has been in to opposition to stadium and arena solutions that involved the state, even when the revenue did not come from the state's general fund. Speaker Chopp and others were so dissatisfied with the relationship between state-wide priorities and the local community needs of anything in King County (and Seattle) that a state task force was formed to construct a solution.
Joint Task Force Local Financing Options for King County had been formed, with Ross Hunter as a co-chair, and Washington State senator Ed Murray as a member. The task force was presented with a variety of proposals to use the county-wide hotel/care rental/ restaurant tax, as well as the Seattle only hotel tax. Some of these locally collected taxes have state sales tax credits contributing to their funds.

Unfortunately the task force did not produce a report of recommendations of what the locally collected funds should be spent on, with Mr Hunter commenting to a Tacoma News Tribune writer that there isn't a natural jurisdiction for this situation.

As Mr Hunter stated back in December in the Tacoma News tribune, his personal preference is that the state sales tax component goes back to the state. Mr. Hunter was quoted in Friday's web edition of the Seattle PI as reiterated that same preference for returning the state's portion back to the state.

Here are some key quotes, with my commentary interspersed:

"I think I've got something that will work here," said Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina and chairman of the House Finance committee. "I am very close to releasing a plan."

Hunter would not offer specifics, saying he is awaiting approval from House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle.

He said his plan would not include a penny of state money but would be financed entirely by money raised in the city.

To a great extent this was the idea all along, what I think is useful is that he is being quoted in public explicitly stating the position before the inevitable argument is made by sports haters. How he constructs this is still largely unknown.

Hunter said he has no problem allowing the city to impose its own taxes but feels no pressure to enable Seattle to cash in on the bonus [from Clay Benett].

"I would go out of my way to figure out a way to take $30 million from those guys in Oklahoma City. I would go out of my way to do that just for the fun of it, just for the sport," Hunter said. But "the fact that Seattle has negotiated a deal that (is meant to) force me to act is not attractive to me."

Mr. Bennett named Mr. Hunter and Mr. Chopp as the people that stopped Bennett's quest for a free 500 million dollar stadium to be built in Renton Washington.

Seattle had asked lawmakers to allow the city to tap a local hotel and motel tax surcharge that is used to pay off previous work at the Seattle Convention Center. That tax source is raking in money more quickly than previously projected. But the idea of extending it to KeyArena does not have traction in Olympia, Hunter said.

It appears that Mr. Hunter will take back the state's sales tax component, while Ed Murray is proposing that the convention center proposal move forward.

"There is no appetite down here for fixing KeyArena with state dollars," he [Hunter] said.

Hunter said his plan would not rely on admission taxes, which are better used for facility maintenance. He hinted it might include money for affordable housing -- a pet concern for Chopp.

Despite its surplus, the convention center tax is not an option for KeyArena because it is partly funded through a state sales tax credit, Hunter said.

"I want the state's money back," Hunter said.

The credit costs the state about $10 million a year, he said. Without that portion of the convention center revenue stream, the taxes do not raise enough to overhaul KeyArena.

There you go, 10 million dollars, the one percent the City of Seattle was hoping to use is sort of being identified as the state's portion the convention center fund. Mr. Hunter has doubts about the convention center's proposal, and has sliced off 10 million dollars from that same fund.

Here is state's position, or at least Hunter's, as it relates to the City of Seattle, and the settlement between the city and Clay Bennett.

But he has no problem "getting out of the way" of local governments that want to make their own tax decisions, he said.

Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis believes a pair of motivations will encourage lawmakers to help the city, despite the Legislature's previous rejections of KeyArena tax proposals. One incentive is the $30 million payoff. The other is that the future of Seattle Center is to some degree tied to the health of KeyArena.

"Seattle Center is a more sympathetic issue than NBA basketball," Ceis said.

Still, the state faces a biennial shortfall of $6 billion or more, and lawmakers are facing cries for help from every corner.

"This is not an easy proposal for this legislative session," Ceis said.

Hunter said he would not be "embarrassed" into granting the city authority so it can chase the bonus. That provision was intended to put political pressure on the Legislature, Hunter said.

"You know, children do stuff like this," he said.

"So I feel no compulsion to act on this simply because Seattle has negotiated a deal without consulting with me beforehand. If it works out, it works out. If it doesn't, I'm sorry."

"I might have agreed to it ahead of time if they asked me but they didn't," Hunter said. "I just don't like that whole transaction."

This is the environment the lowly citizen (me) toils in while attempting to encourage the right people to do the right thing.

So, there is not going to be a specific KeyArena solution prescribed by the state, and absolutely not with any state funds. This is a broader problem requiring a broader solution that takes the state out of the role of deciding local issues where the state does not have a direct financial interest.

Hunter is separately working on broader legislation to reform financing of major facilities, he said.

Qwest Field, Safeco Field and the Convention Center were all paid for through a tax source deliberately set to raise more money than was needed -- to ensure better bond ratings, he said.

But that results in surplus funds that are inevitably raided by "rapacious" budget writers, Hunter said. Next thing you know, governments or programs are relying on that extra money for tangential needs.

Hunter is also keeping the details of that plan quiet until he can get Chopp's approval.

There you have it, the state government trying to get out of the way, out of participating in any way in stadiums and arenas.
This morning Brian Robinson at SonicsCentral.com stating his feeling of hope.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

(17% recycled content from prior stories)

USAToday.com Unknowingly gives fans hope

2009-02-12T20:42:00.001-08:00

In the February 12th USAToday.com story No buzz about NBA returning to Seattle AP Reporter Tim Booth unknowingly passes along the missing piece in the arena puzzle to KeyArena rebuild hopefuls like me.
Booth says, "[Washington State] House Finance Committee Chairman Ross Hunter, D-Madina, said Thursday, he was working with House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, on a plan for stadium funding that everetbody can live with, but wasn't willing to disclose any details."

Mr. Booth, that is the buzz. At no point in the past 3 years could you find the name Frank Chopp in connection with a stadium unless it was in reference to opposition. I had heard rumors that somebody had something drafted, but none of it had a connection to Hunter actually working on anything, and nobody has mentioned that Mr. Hunter was working with Mr. Chopp, until your report.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

Washington State Senator Ed Murray Needs a KeyArena Bill

2009-02-07T07:41:00.001-08:00

The Washington State Convention Center made a move for its slice of the non-general fund revenue pie that proponents of the KeyArena remodel are also interested in utilizing. On February 5th Washington State Senator Ed Murray sponsored bill 5875 AN ACT Relating to the convention place station expansion of the state convention and trade center. This proposal is intended to allow the the Washington State Convention & Trade Center to spend 766 million dollars to expand its facility by building a second building across the street from the current location in downtown Seattle, essentially doubling its capacity.

The revenue to support this big build comes from an existing 7% sales tax added on top of the existing state sales tax on hotels just in Seattle. The hotels must have 60 or more rooms, so, larger downtown hotels are effected. This tax is currently paying off the first big building. the debt against the original facility. Senator Ed Murray was quoted during the 5pm KING News broadcast tonight as saying the convention center currently turned away 1.7 billion dollars in business over the past 4 years, motivating the convention center to request the expantion.

This revenue is not part of the state's general fund, so taking for spreading around the rest of the state is to be avoided. This actually happened last year to plug some state budget holes and that made the Seattle hoteliers very angry. It is very likely that if the fund were to be taken again that the hoteliers would take legal action. It may not be popular to promote this project, but the alternative use for this fund may be legally problematic. But as Senator Murray was quoted on television tonight he said the expantion would employ 300 contruction workers, and 3,500 employees once it is built.

What is important about this bill is that there has been an agreement of some kind between the convention center folks and the City of Seattle to share that 7% sales tax when it becomes available, 6% for the convention center and 1% for Seattle Center. The city is planning on requesting that last 1% to fund the remodel of Seattle Center's KeyArena (that is one word, KeyArena).

Senator Murray said tonight on KING 5 News that nobody has approched him about a Seattle Center KeyArena bill. I had sent Mr. Murray an email on February 5th concerning both the his convention center bill, and requesting that he sponsor or supports a similar bill for KeyArena. I also sent a similar email to one of the bill co-sponsors Senator Ken Jacobsen who is my representitive, as well as an email to Representitive Ross Hunter. Murray and Hunter both served on a task force that was supposed to recommend projects using this local funding source. The convention center and Seattle Center presentations were made back to back to Mr. Hunter and Mr. Murray's task force on December 2nd, 2008. If Ed Murray has the ability to write a bill for the convention center then what, other than personal desire, is stopping him from writing a bill for Seattle Center.
Who has to contact Ed Murray in order for him to write another bill that is almost the same bill as he had written for the convention center. Is this supposed to be the city asking, another legislator?

Brian Robinson at Sonics Central has mentioned that there is a bill that has been drafted and had a fed revisions. Does Rd Murray know about this, or is what he said what he did to force that bill out?

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

Seattle Times: County May Gain Control Over Locally Generated Tax

2009-01-12T20:43:00.001-08:00

Okay, the story had a different title, we all see what we want to see. Buried in the story Huskies May Play 2010 Season in Qwest Field is a meaningful part for KeyArena.

There is a major push, partly through the efforts of the University of Washington's lobbying efforts for a major remodel of Huskie Stadium, to give the authority to the local government to decide the priority for spending the locally collected tax revenue. In this case the Seattle Times story is talking about King County, and the taxing authority going to the King County Council and not have it reside in the state legislature. These funds can only be spent on youth athletic facilities, arts, cultural centers, stadiums, just infrastructure, not for operating expenditures. They have to build with it, in this case, possibly Huskie Stadium.

This is not just some other general fund budget item that could just as well get spent on anything state-wide. This tax is not collected generally and should not get raided to be spent generally.

Do the people on the other side of the state really think I want to pay 2.8% more for french fries so they can take that tax money for a state general obligation in their town? They should tax their own businesses if they want those funds, or not ask for them. If I am dumb enough to tax myself in order to build this stuff I really, really do want the revenue from those taxes to actually build and pay for it, really.

I really thought the Huskie Stadium effort would be the fall guy in trying to get the funds, but still prevent them form being raided and spread all over the state. But they have proved to be a very, very useful entity in promoting a message that increases the understanding within the Washington State legislature, and possibly the general public. King County business carry a greater burdon and that same locality should benefit and control the fund the tax produces.

Why this matters to KeyArena and Sonics fans:
Seattle is in King County. It has a similar tax as the county does drawn from city hotels. It is also requesting local use of locally generated tax revenues. If Huskie supporters are successful in this argument there is a very good chance that what is fair for the county is fair for the city, and KeyArena.
At the very least we have a more popular, powerful, and funded lobby educating people and influencing the legislature to make an effort to understand the position from the tax burdon/benefit position, rather than the very unpopular and dumb argumant about somebody that does not contribute to the tax fund deciding if the county or city deserve a remodeled stadium, or arena, or youth athletic fields.

Even if the argument for Huskie Stadium is not successful, the the question of tax fairness being advanced helps the KeyArena cause, at the same time somebody other than Sonics fans take the hits for asking the state to follow its own law, and not raid the fund, screwing Seattle and King County in the process.

Go Huskies!

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

Seattle Times' Steve Kelley: Clock is ticking for city's NBA hopes

2009-01-05T18:29:00.000-08:00

Way to kick out the jams Steve Kelley.
Today Kelley beat the trash can lids to the rhythm of truth and sang the song of the KeyArena blues.
It's beat, it's aging, and mostly empty.

Where are the business leaders Kelley wants to know. And, "Where is the civic pride?"

Great questions, unanswered for the most part, ignored by too many that insist on calling themselves business, or civic leaders.
I have wondered this as well. As much as Seattle is similar to other towns, in that we have our share of bandwagon fans, and general gloryhounds, there are more then our fair share of good and well-to-do citizens that prize themselves as leaders. Somebody has to step up to show public leadership, we have enough back room power brokers in this, but that is rarely enough to make something this big and complex happen.

At some point I was expecting the major sports writers to kick off the conversation with the general public. I thought it would have happened sooner, but those thoughts were rolling around in my head, and some comments here, back before the economy flipped on its head. We are, like it or not, bound to the schedule of the Washington State Legislature.

Thank you Steve Kelley for attending college basketball games in what was a pro basketball arena, and should be again.
Read Steve Kelley's column in the Seattle Times, here:
Clock is Ticking!
Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

TheNewsTribune.com : KeyArena redo faces uphill battle for funds

2009-01-02T07:38:00.000-08:00

Eric Williams of the Tacoma News Tribune has a story today on the "shaky ground" the proposal is on heading into the current state legislative session.
Reprehensive Ross Hunter (D - Medina) said in an interview after the December 1st meeting of the Joint Task Force Local Financing Options for King County that is supposed to prioritize spending for special tax revenue collected in Seattle (7%) on hotels and King County (2%) on hotels, car rental, and restaurants, that they would try to have a report written before the legislative session.

However, 2009 is here and the legislative task force charged with putting that report together, outlining how to spend King County taxes, has yet to meet, said Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, co-chair of the group.
Hunter said it’s unlikely that the group will meet before the Legislature convenes Jan. 12, and that the task force will have to put together a report during the first few weeks of the session.

How much attention that report receives is unknown because lawmakers will be spending most of their time trying to figure out how to balance the state budget, with a projected deficit of more than $5 billion.
“The reality is, we are going to issue a report that will have some weight in the Legislature,” Hunter said. “But this is obviously a very contentious issue, and it’s going to be dwarfed by the whole budget disaster."

I thought that it was unusual that Hunter would offer a report on spending priorities before he knew how much money he really had, or has. That offer to have the report done was before the governor provided a budget, before state governors and city mayors provided President-elect Obama a laundry list of requests for federal funding support.

State officials will start the legislative session on January 12th, that's before the size and scope of the federal stimulus package will be known. The state budget process is, in effect, backward. Projected revenue drop-offs may be mitigated by federal spending, Governor Chris Gregoire projected 1 billion dollars of federal money into her budget proposal on December 18th. Since then the federal stimulus package has grown from 2.5 million jobs to 3.2 million.

Back to the Eric Williams story:

But competition for the funding is fierce, and includes a $150 million request from the University of Washington to complete a $300 million proposal to revamp Husky Stadium and a $766 million expansion project put forth by the Washington State Convention and Trade Center to double the size of its current downtown Seattle facility. King County arts groups, youth athletic programs and low-income housing programs also want a piece of the pie.
That funding could be limited if state lawmakers decide to use money from the King County taxes funding source to help balance the budget as the state deals with a weak economy.

"We cannot satisfy all of the groups that are asking for funds,” Hunter said. “That can't happen because they add up to more that there is. You also have to balance what it is the Legislature is likely to do. I can’t predict it. I honestly do not know the answer.”
Hunter had said in December that he would get feedback from the rest of the task force about what their priorities are, and craft a recommendation the majority of the group can support. If some sort of agreement couldn’t be reached, Hunter said the group would put together a report outlining the options.
“We will all be forced together in about a week and a half, and that will solve the problem,” Hunter said.

Rumors keep swirling around that UW husky stadium remodel might end up entirely privately funded, which might explain Hunter's remarks about not having enough money for all of these projects.

The task force has not gotten together since the December 1st meeting, and I would not expect them to until they have an idea of how much federal money may be coming the states way. If the funding is significant enough there will be a big shell game to extract state money from one project covered by federal money, and patch other holes in the state budget.

To be clear, the potential is that the hotel owners in Seattle are saddled with an added 7% sales tax on top of the existing state wide sales tax for the express purpose of funding infrastructure projects in Seattle that boost trade and tourism, such as the Washing State Convention & Trade Center. I am not sure how the hoteliers will react if that fund is raided again. The fund was raided last year to patch a hole in the budget, state lawmakers were pressured to act to prevent that from happening again by passing a law on July 1st.

The tax collected in the city, and the tax collected in the county are often seen as the same, but they are slightly different in their purposes, one for convention center funding and the other sports stadium funding. The convention center folks and the city are looking to split that 7% fund, 6% for the convention center, 1% for Seattle Center's KeyArena.

My opinion is that if it is such a good idea to tax hotels an added 7% to spend state wide, then the hotels state wide should be taxed the added 7%, and not just the hotels in Seattle. But I am just a citizen of Seattle.
I think we are waiting two or three weeks to know how much money there really is, and then to the end of March to see the next quarterly revenue projection to see how much money there will be.
If this does not happen this year it could be a very long time before KeyArena get's any kind of remodel, and even longer for the NBA to return to Seattle.

TheNewsTribune.com: City of Seattle still in pursuit of NBA

2008-12-03T18:07:00.000-08:00

The Washington State Task force Local Financing Options for King County did meet on Monday to accept proposals for capital investments in King County, paid for primarily by an existing sales tax on hotels and motels. Among the proposals was a presentation from the City of Seattle's Deputy Mayor, Tim Ceis.

The city's proposal was set in a presentation on the Seattle Center Master Plan, describing Key Arena as a part of the bigger site efforts.
The city's 75 million dollar proposal was presented right after the Washington State Convention and Trade Center proposed, a 766 million dollar expansion of its facility, dwarfing the city's request. The city and the convention center have agreed that there should be enough revenue to build both projects. These two projects are looking at a revenue stream that is drawn within Seattle.

The other groups requesting funds are looking at a slightly different fund that are drawn in King County. Those two revenue sources are separate, and are viewed as separate by the state committee members. The committee will produce one of two things within the next few weeks; a recommendation of which projects to move forward on if the committee is able to reach consensus, or a report to the legislature on all of the different options if consensus can not be reached within the committee.

Eric Williams of the Tacoma News Tribune posted some of his audio he used for his newspaper report. It is on his blog titled, City of Seattle still in pursuit of NBA. The deputy mayor explains in the audio how he views the presentation, and one of the co-chairs of the state task force, Ross Hunter, gives his view and preference that local governments should have more control of how locally derived taxes are allocated. That's a good thing.

The presentation that was the focus of the local media was the request from the University of Washington for 150 million dollars to match 150 million in private contributions to remodel the football stadium. The stadium is 93 years young. That proposal brought harsh criticisms from Washington State University alumni. In a way this is good for the Key Arena proposal, it keeps the media busy with the dog and cat fight.

For all of these desires for funding the biggest risk is the state raiding the fund and using it for general fund obligations, even though they passed a law 5 months ago to keep that very thing from happening.

Here are the links to the city's presentation, click the meeting date to go to the state page for the rest of the agenda links:

Meeting Material
December 1, 2008
Agenda
4 Culture Presentation - Jim Kelly, Executive Director 4 Culture and Friends
University of Washington 1 - Scott Woodward, UW Athletic Director and Ron Crockett, Major Gifts Chair
University of Washington 2 - Scott Woodward, UW Athletic Director and Ron Crockett, Major Gifts Chair
Youth Athletic Facilities - Kaleen Cottingham, Director, Recreation and Conservation Office
Washington State Convention Center - Frank Finneran, Chair, Board of Directors, Washington State Convention and Trade Center
Seattle Center 1 - Tim Ceis, Deputy Mayor, City of Seattle
Seattle Center 2 - Tim Ceis, Deputy Mayor, City of Seattle

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

KeyArena, or no KeyArena, that is Monday's Question

2008-11-29T10:18:00.001-08:00

Monday, December 1st, the Washington State Task Force for Local Financing Option for King County is required to submit to the appropriate state committees their findings and recommendations.

Along with funding arts in King County, youth athletic programs, the Washington State Trade & Convention, and Husky stadium, is the request by the City of Seattle's request for funding to pay for Key Arena renovations.
If the task force does not recommend the Key Arena proposal then it is, more or less, dead (more or less).

Not recommending the renovation might also let Clay Bennett off the hook for 30 million dollars should Steve Ballmer not be able to buy a team within 5 years of the settlement date with the city, August 17, 2008.
The state has until December 31, 2009 to provide a funding resource for 1/4 of the cost toward an arena in order to put that part of the settlement in play.

This is a big step, and not the last step, should it move forward.

Part of the city's presentation is that the funding could be used in the near term on something else at Seattle Center, home to Key Arena, should there be a delay in Steve Ballmer being able to buy an NBA team. A major point here is to provide near term construction jobs. If the city did redirect the money to another project on the site then they would be on the hook to put the money back in the arena and provide 75 million of their own.

Committee co-chair Ross Hunter teld me in an email reply that he does not think this is "shovel ready" this Spring, and that he would be "astounded" if Steve Ballmer's Seattle Center Investment group made its investment before securing a team.
I agree with both of those things. What I will say is that very few of the requests are "shovel ready", activity at Seattle Center is likely much closer, and Key Arena still closer than Husky stadium and the convention center.

If there is doubt that Steve Balmer could secure a team in the near term I will direct anybody's attention to the Memphis Grizzlies home game attendance.

I would expect activity of some kind to start sometime, in some way, at Seattle Center this year, should the financing eventually get approved in the next couple months.
But, first things first, we need the committee recommendation.

House Bill 2765 New Section states the due dates for the task force, authorizes the activity, and the scope of their work.
Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

Revised Agenda: Local Financing Options for King County, Joint Task Force

2008-11-23T11:56:00.001-08:00

Local Financing Options for King County, Joint Task Force* - 12/01/08 9:00 am

Full Committee
(360) 786-7124
Bellevue City Hall
450 110th Ave. NE
Bellevue, WA

REVISED 11/20/2008 10:00 AM

Agenda:

1. Funding Arts in King County.
2. Financing for the renovation of the University of Washington Stadium.
3. Youth Athletic Facilities Fund grant program.
4. Washington State Convention Center presentation on future plans and funding.
5. Key Arena renovations.
6. Public comment.

~
So, is it better to close the show? I think yes, though I expect most questions that the City of Seattle would have to answer about Key Arena renovations have been answered. I see the convention center presentation precedes the city. I think in contrast the Key Arena project will look more mature, just my guess, based on them not being in the meeting materials to this point. See here.
Hopefully they will play well with others.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

SeattleTimes.com: Washington State regulators ask: Can blogging be lobbying?

2008-11-22T09:03:00.001-08:00

The questions being asked by nameless, faceless “regulators” is: Is a blog that advocates for something a lobbying effort, should the blogger be treated a lobbyist by the state? I do not think this is too tough to figure out, and let’s not let the fact that I read the “newspaper” story online point a bright light on how this will play out.

I am going insert my opinion throughout the story. My opinion isn’t likely going to be more meaningful to the opinions that readers already have. Our opinions are our own truth, but differences in interpretation in definitions (common understanding of terms) is what the story is really about.

Here is why this matters to me, at the risk of displaying a spongy self-absorbency, I am a Communication Major at the University of Washington, admittedly and old one. I have cobbled together enough credits to coast out the last 10 credits of my degree as electives, planning to graduate in June. The area of concentration in my coursework has been Communication Technology and Society.

The state working toward resolving today’s media problems with new definitions in regulation, when necessary, is a great idea. The application of old media laws to new media are dumb to the situation of the present day. Washington State Public Disclosure Commission is working on this issue and should help clarify the situation.

Here are my opinions inserted throughout this article from the AP, posted at the SeattleTimes.com

Blogger beware? State regulators are wondering whether online political activism amounts to lobbying, which could force Web-based activists to file public reports detailing their finances.

In a collision of 21st century media and 1970s political reforms, the inquiry hints at a showdown over press freedoms for bloggers, whose self-published journals can shift between news reporting, opinion writing, political organizing and campaign fundraising.

State officials are downplaying any possible media rights conflict, pointing out that regulators have already exempted journalistic blogging from previous guidelines for online campaign activity.

What the government hasn't done very well is say who is a "journalist". The assumption is toward protecting traditional (big) media that is trying to transition from pulp to electrons. The Seattle PI has paid journalist/bloggers that enjoy the rights and protections under law any other, they have bucketed their bloggers into three sections: Seattle PI journalist (PI Staff Blogs), then they have their reader blogs (not so protected), then they have their "blogs for the rest of us" (not so protected).

It is extremely unlikely that ANY of those bloggers would be subject to lobbying questions, not because they are absent bias, but because of the newspaper media source enjoys the atmosphere of journalistic blogging because of where they blog.

Sound fair? Sound plausible?

If the state calls me (never happen) and demands that I open my empty wallet to them my options are limited, if demand the same thing of the three buckets of Seattle PI bloggers and without question the Seattle PI would come to the defense of any of them in order to reserve their paid staff and their blogs, a slippery slope.
Nobody knows if their citizen bloggers are getting paid, or are in the industry in some way that they are blogging about.
This is not the point of debate, not exactly, but it should be.

The issue at hand is defining the difference between somebody like me, the guy with a nasty blogging habit that openly advocates for something, and a lobbyist. I state right in my profile to you left who and what I am.
Not a problem for the state, I am not a lobbyist, let's hope.

Now, if I had handbills with my message and an extensive mailing list, and I was directly compensated to advocate, not a problem, I would be a lobbyist. Now replace handbill with blog, and mailing with emailing, am I still a lobbyist because I am being compensated? Likely, yes. What if I am not compensated at the time? Maybe. What if I write the same stories as "special to the Seattle Times" in the op/ed section of the newspaper? Maybe not.

Nobody is calling newspapers political lobbyist when they endorse candidates for office, even though they have advertisements from political parties, and I have to question if they get more from a given candidate after an endorsement. It is a newspaper so that's ok.

Some media is more special than others because of how the laws and rules are crafted. New rules are being crafted that will define new lines.

SeattleTimes.com
But the blogosphere is taking the notion seriously. One prominent liberal blogger in Seattle is already issuing a dare - if the government wants David Goldstein to file papers as a lobbyist, it will have to take him to court.

Goldstein, publisher of the widely read horsesass.org, wants to know how his political crusades could be subject to financial disclosures while newspaper writers, radio hosts and others in traditional media get a pass.

For most bloggers, Goldstein said, the work "is a hobby, a sideline. And yet they contribute greatly to the public debate and to the new journalism."

This is my hobby, too, I have not been paid a dime to advocate anything.

What about Brian Robinson? Pretty simple, he has a blog, SonicsCentral.com/blog. He also has an advocacy web site www.FixTheCenter.com that clearly says it is an advocacy site.
Not the same site, but he might get second guessed because SonicsCentral is a blog and not printed as a "newspaper". Sound fair? This blog and SonicsCentral are not structually different.

SeattleTimes.com
"When you start talking about regulating Internet activity, you open up a Pandora's Box," he said.

Political money in Washington is regulated by the state Public Disclosure Commission, which compiles reports on candidates' and lobbyists' finances and makes the information available to the public.

The agency was created after voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in 1972. A second measure in 1992 added contribution limits and other reforms, leading to a set of rules that the state calls "one of the most exhaustive disclosure laws in the country."

Under the law, lobbyists must register with the state, and submit regular reports about who pays them, how they spend money, and which issues they're working on.

Groups that don't fit the traditional definition of "lobbyist" also have to file reports, provided they meet certain spending thresholds while leading public campaigns intended to influence public policy.

Earlier this year, the PDC was asked by some lobbyists whether calls to action made over the Internet fell under any lobbying regulations, and the agency began probing the topic.
"One of the issues was the grass roots involvement, in terms of prompting individuals, in a call to action, to contact legislators, to send in letters," said Doug Ellis, the PDC's assistant director.

Business interests asked, "Can we do the same kind of thing? Is it proper? Do we have to report it?" Ellis said.

The question of blogging soon entered the picture. For online political junkies like Goldstein, stirring up the public and urging readers to sound off about public policy is a key part of the mission.

But, as Goldstein pointed out in a recent public meeting on the topic, the same could be said for newspaper editorialists or radio commentators - and they're exempt from reporting their income and spending under an exemption created to protect the media.

"What you're basically saying is, if you want to raise any money at all, now you have to report," Goldstein said. "It's treating us entirely different than other media outlets."

There is the nut to crack.
Nothing is telling a business that they can not have a blog, but asking for money and advocating on that blog may be seen as a lobbying effort, dull as the blog might be. The business community is saying that it isn't part of the lobbying effort if other blogs can raise money for a cause.

What may be the meaningful hair splitting is that I am not asking anybody for money, the horsesass.org is, and so is the SeattleTimes.com, so each can keep doing what they are doing in the public interest.

Having a bias and the desire to communicate news and information for that purpose is not lobbying (Fox News can do it, so can horsesass.org).

Having a business and then advocating for that business is just not the same thing. Wine magazines have advertisements for (you guessed it) wine. Having a wine business and publishing a wine magazine, about your wine, is not news, it is an advertisement. Deliver that publication to state senators to advocate for tax breaks for the wine industry and it is a lobbying effort.
Wine Spectator publishing a story about the industry benefitting from possible tax breaks is NOT lobbying.
Pulp or electrons, the same logic should apply. The question becomes how PDC defines all of this.

Much of the discussion about blogging as lobbying boils down to the evolving distinction of who is and is not a member of the media.

While blogs and other online-only information sources are showing greater influence, traditional outlets - particularly newspapers - are struggling with a deeply wounded business model.

"Our definitions of all of this are changing so dramatically, right in front of our eyes," said Sree Sreenivasan, of Columbia University's journalism school.

Laws have often defined media by describing the form in which the information is delivered - a newspaper, a magazine, or a licensed TV or radio station. But the Internet is eroding those tried-and-true distinctions, making such definitions sound hopelessly outdated.

In this environment, Sreenivasan said, regulators facing a question about who qualifies as media might need to undertake a much more detailed examination of the content being produced.

"It's very hard to put them in a box: 'This is OK, this is not OK,'" Sreenivasan said. "It's a waste of everybody's time. I'd say, what is the work they're doing?"

The PDC's Ellis doesn't expect commissioners to impose financial reporting for bloggers who a perform a journalistic function. Since that type of activity was excluded in campaign finance rules, he said, "I don't see any reason why they would veer from past practice."

Lobbyist Steve Gano, who represents business clients in Olympia, said he's not troubled by activist bloggers who practice a form of journalism. But the increasing presence of Web-based advocacy groups are a different story, he said.

Well, no, before blogs there were pitchforks and torches carried by people advocating something be done by authorities using the communicative means of, and "advertising" by, encouraging more people with pitchforks and torches to march on the town hall.

The pitchfork and torch makers were not soliciting the local farmer to go to the local authorities to advocate for more pitchforks and torches, for the expressed benefit of the pitchfork and torch makers.

If an online group doesn't have to report the type of activities that would otherwise be considered lobbying, Gano asked, why shouldn't lobbyists just close up shop and relaunch their efforts online?

"There's a new business model out there," Gano said. "I can just sit at home, e-mail folks from here, and never have to disclose who my financial backers are."
---
On the Net:

PDC: http://www.pdc.wa.gov

The lobbyist does have a point, but the question is how somebody can tell the difference?
Maybe a simple note on a blog that says, "I just a nut that wants something done about Key Arena (or insert your topic) and I am gonna write about it. If you give me money, that's your problem", or something like that.

If you have a lobbyist pulplication, you engage in those activities without disclosing your motives it is against the current law. Using electrons to do that same thing does not make is fundimentally different.

The story was published here: SeattleTimes.com: Washington State regulators ask: Can blogging be lobbying?
By CURT WOODWARD
Associated Press Writer
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

FixTheCenter.com

2008-11-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

By now the readers that go to http://SonicCentral.com have been encouraged by Brian Robinson in his story about Ray Allen to go to a new web site, www.fixthecenter.com

It is not difficult to understand why, the Sonics franchise is gone, as of last July; the franchise went to Oklahoma City, and the symbols went to the Museum of History & Industry in Seattle. There isn't a Sonics to Save, but there is a new future to try for, and the arena is the key.

What is left is Seattle Center's Key Arena as the main focus. Through the trials and tribulations the utility of Key Arena stayed unresolved for NBA interests, and civic interests.

Few people can argue that watching an NBA game is anything but great. What is not great is nearly everything else about the arena. Fewer people can argue that Key Arena that going to an event there is anything but slightly above average. The Seattle Thunderbirds hockey team will complete their evacuation from the facility to Kent, Washington (though they have the desire to still call themselves "Seattle"). They didn't leave because of anything but the facility the lease terms.

What is not slightly above average is the use of Key Arena by non-civic, non-pro basketball activities. The Everett Events Center will draw arts and entertainment acts that could be held at Key Arena by using the curtain to isolate the activity. The new Kent facility, where the Thunderbirds now play, will also compete for similar sized activities. For larger events are completely bypassing Seattle. Some of the acts you see are there for more than one show, getting in and out of the facility is a challenge.

Regardless, if you are a Sonics fan, the means to an end has always been an arena solution. Right now, the only feasible solution in Seattle is a complete renovation of Key Arena. Expect the city to have the NBA consult on the Steve Ballmer portion of the arena.

We are were we are.

A few days ago Brian Robinson sent me an email letting me know that SonicsCentral.com will direct people to visit www.fixthecenter.com

I write stories there at SonicsCentral, Brian said I was welcome to write at the new site, though nothing has been arranged. The new site is advocacy web site (Sports and Activities for Families (501c4). I will likely write stories there, I am not a lobbyist, I am not paid, they are not obligated to tell me anything or publish anything I write.
If I choose to write about their public activities I post it here. But beyond that, I write about this subject and until something is arranged for me to write there I will keep writing here.

Begin forwarded message:
Mr Baker
Date: October 25, 2008 6:01:35 PM PDT
To: Brian Robinson
Subject: Could you answer a few questions about SC?

Could you answer a couple easy questions?
Your web site, SonicsCentral.com, now encourages those readers to www.fixthecenter.com, what will the change in focus mean for the readers of SonicsCentral.com?

The new site is likely going to attract and broaden the types of people that may not have any interest in NBA basketball, any words of advice you want to give to posters and readers of SonicsCentral stories and threads?

Do you see this new effort to take on stories and conversations about the entire Seattle Center site?
Will you have stories written by local politicians, and media people, similar to a reader might see at Crosscut.com?
~
I sent the email with the questions 3 weeks ago, and have not had any answers and there hasn't been anything from Brian letting me know about writing on the new site, like, how access the site.
Over the past couple weeks there was a tab for a forum on the site, that is gone.
I am not sure what its diminished function is supposed to provide the public.

SLAM ONLINE: Nothing But Glove

2008-11-18T08:56:00.001-08:00

There is great story about Gary Payton in Slam. He talks about his career a little, and how he views his career and basketball now. Payton mentions how he still bleeds Green and Gold, and supporting Save Our Sonics. He still has business in Seattle, and the GP Foundation.

I went to a GP Foundation/JL Scott charity basketball game at Key Arena on September 9th, 2001, before everything in this world was flipped upside down. They raised $250,000 that night, between the game and auction (I did not go to the auction, I just went to the game).

http://slamonline.com/online/the-magazine/2008/11/nothing-but-glove/
Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

SeattlePI.com: NBA pitch is no 'slam-dunk'

2008-11-17T07:40:00.000-08:00

Front page of the Seattle PI is the report of the City of Seattle's effort to get the State of Washington to authorize 75 million dollars in funding for stadiums and exhibition infrastructure in Seattle to have 1% of the current 7% sales tax on Seattle hotels to be redirected to the Seattle Center for either construction around Key Arena, or to other portions of Seattle Center should an NBA team not become available for Steve Ballmer to buy.

Read it here!
Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

Added to this story, my opinion:
The reporter quoted Ross Hunter, Tim Ceis, but not Brian Robinson. The reporter noted that the fund was raided last year but did not mention the Senate Bill 6638 was passed into law to prevent that from happening again. The reporter did not mention the state task force or that there is a meeting December 1st. Other than what was missing, I thought what was included was pretty good reporting. Ross Hunter's quotes are the framework for negotiation, the city has work to do politically by selling this at a time of budget cuts and it has to have an agreement with the convention center folks in order for this to happen.
It has been and will come down to that, not a shock to you or I. I have been saying it for a few months.

Seattle Times: Gregoire pushes economic-stimulus plan

2008-11-11T12:21:00.001-08:00

Hey, check it out, the governor of Washington State says that not only does she have to reduce spending on some programs, but she needs to find a way to stimulate the state economy.
How about tapping a fund that can only be used for stadium and exhibition construction?

Read the report at http://seattletimes.com
Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

David Brewster, Crosscut.com: Let the infrastructure roll!

2008-11-09T18:46:00.001-08:00

Mr. Brewster has written a story about the local need for infrastructure spending to stimulate the economy. Naturally he mentions the Convention Center, but notes that it could get "bogged down in planning".
That is because they do not have a plan yet, they have a want. A plan isn't a plan without a schedule. The City of Seattle could act on that 75 million dollars right now.

3 weeks until the state task force meets. The city can beat the convention center to the finish line with an actionable plan.
Read David Brewster's story here at http://crosscut.com

December 1st Seattle's Arena Funding Proposal is Due

2008-11-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

Today is November 9th, between now and the December 1st meeting of the Washington State Task Force on Local Funding Options in King County will meet at Bellevue City Hall the City of Seattle will have to produce a formal proposal requesting funding.

The formal agenda for December 1st has not yet been published. Between now and then I expect the agenda to fill with a variety of proposals for the task force to revue prior to the meeting. I expect that as the city gets closer to the meeting date that the public will become more engaged, even in minor ways, by interested parties.

What, if anything, will Steve Ballmer and Matt Griffin's Seattle Center Investors (SCI) say in support of the city's efforts with the state?
What, if anything, will Brian Robinson's lobbying group Sports and Activities for Families (SAF) say in support of the city's efforts with the state?
And will there be columns and editorials written by the Seattle newspapers?
And will there be resistance expressed by the Washington State Convention & Trade Center written by David Brewster at Crosscut.com?
To the last question, the city has work to do there. There is the point to turn resistance into common support.

The state committee members that were running for re-election have won. The governor, Chris Gregoire has also won re-election. Gregoire mentioned in one of the press conferences this past week that she is hopeful the federal government will provide a jobs based stimulus package. She also mentioned that she will be proposing a stimulus package near the end of the year. She said that now is not the time to be raising taxes, but what of existing taxes? Well, she has to cut spending to balance the budget. State Senate Bill 6638 went into law last July 1st that prevents the state from taking money from hotel tax for general fund uses (again) but there are funds there. Those funds can only be spent on infrastructure of stadium, convention, cultural centers.

I expect to hear the words "stimulus package" in connection to the proposals by the City of Seattle, and Kent, and Renton, and. . .
This is one of the few revenue sources that can be used to stimulate jobs right away.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

The President Shoots Hoop

2008-11-05T11:11:00.000-08:00

The President Shoots Hoop

Why it doesn't matter: what politicians do for sport when they are not working is meaningless, unless they are shooting people face.

Why it does matter: like it or not, Americans take an interest in leaders as a way to see how they are or are not like them, and find an abstract way to understand who the President is as a person.

Here is my impression of what sport the president is identified with,
played it or not.
Greorge W. Bush owned a baseball team.
Bill Clinton chased women.
George Bush sr played college baseball.
Ronald Reagan is identified with football, pretend and otherwise.
Jimmy Carter played baseball/softball at pick nicks.
Gerald Ford played college football.
Richard Nixon had a bowling alley installed in the White House.

Barack Obama plays basketball on the day of election for good luck and to relax.

Sport, in some tiny way, becomes part of our national cultural identity.

Note to Seattle: We now hoop.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

Proposition B: Marine Freight Preservation and Bayfront Redevelopment Initiative - San Diego County, CA

2008-11-02T15:03:00.001-08:00

Let's see if San Diego votes on Tuesday for redeveloping the waterfront. It includes a variety of proposed uses, including a new sports arena. The San Jose Mercury News reported that developer Frank Gallagher proposed a basketball arena with a retractable roof.
The complex would be built on a massive deck on the waterfront where there is currently a commercial port. A replacement for the Chargers stadium could be part of it.

A tough sell.

B2, or not B2, that was the Pier 46 question. The answer in Seattle was no.
http://www.smartvoter.org/2008/11/04/ca/sd/prop/B/
Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

Mr. Baker has sent you a video from tvw.org, Washington State Joint Task Force Local Financing Options for King County

2008-10-31T08:12:00.001-07:00

The lesson is: Do not stop looking for information that you want.

About 3:26 minutes into the linked video that actual meeting takes place.
The meeting is the July 16, 2008, of the Washington State Joint Task Force Local Financing Options for King County

Have a great day,

Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:

From: tvw@tvw.org
Date: October 31, 2008 8:03:45 AM PDT
To:Mr. Baker
Subject: Mr. Baker has sent you a video from tvw.org

Mr. Baker has sent you a video from tvw.org

Local Financing Options for King County held on July 16, 2008 9:00am
Task Force administration (selection of Chair, discussion of goals, meeting schedules), overview of stadium-related material in King County, review of 2008 legislation (SB 6638 - reallocating existing lodging taxes for heritage & arts programs), other.

Please click here to watch video or paste this url into your browser address bar: http://www.tvw.org/media/mediaplayer.cfm?EvId=2008070075

please do not reply to this email.
for questions or concerns please email support@tvw.org

The web is a wonderful thing.

CrossCut.com: New tax for KeyArena? A big maybe

2008-10-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

David Brewster at Crosscut.com has taken another run at expressing the Washington State Convention & Trade Center's (WSCTC) point of view on the City of Seattle's desire to use the hotel tax that is collected within Seattle for the state/public portion of Seattle's Key Arena renovation.

WSCTC is closer to identifying an actual site to expand to, they are not there yet. They are closer to knowing how big the new facility will be, they are not there yet. They do want to expand in order to satisfy the over population of hotels in Seattle.

It is interesting that people comment at Crosscut and in the stories at the Seattle Times and Seattle PI that the money should go toward Pike Place Market because it is such a tourist attraction. The question there is: is Pike PLace Market the reason people come to Seattle?

The hotel folks are wanting an expansion of convention space to draw people in from far and wide. I do not see them asking for Pike Place Market to be expanded. I am sure they do not want it to look like a dump, and the city has responded with a measure on the ballot next Tuesday. People will vote for that, not me, but people that comment on these kinds of stories in media outlets.

Having a 15 to 17 thousand seat arena that can actually attract major out of town non-sports events seams to be more in line with what the hotel people are wanting, a place for people to gather for events. While those people are here from out of town I am sure they will go to Pike Place Market as something to do while they are here for their event.

As far as WSCTC providing construction jobs, they are much further away from having an actionable plan than the Key Arena project. If the city had money 6 months ago I think we would see hard hats at Seattle Center today marking up the site for construction.

Something not quite said in David Brewster's story is that unstable timeline of getting a team into Key Arena, and Steve Ballmer paying for the sports effected portion of the renovation, 150 million dollars worth. That is an unknown to them, and I do not think they want the schedule sliding into a window where the WSCTC would want to break ground and have funding for its activity, fair, or fare enough.

What Deputy dog Tim Ceis is telling David Brewster is that they want to use the state money and do the public portion of the renovation even if there isn't an NBA team available right away. That is the hard sell, that isn't the impression they had been giving in public. They had position much of this as just having revenue available if a NBA team could be procured by Steve Ballmer.
The city had a study two years ago that said that Key Arena would need at least 30 million in basic upgrades just to make it a minor league venue without the NBA. That infrastructure and non-sports construction would have to happen no matter what happened with the NBA or state. It looks to me like Ceis and the state are resolving the WSCTC uneasiness with the soft NBA timeline by funding that statement of work, and whatever else they are including (parking garage, or enclosure of the Key footprint?) with the state portion. If this is the case then it does make some sense for the effected WSCTC, and it could infuse the area with construction jobs in a hurry.

This could satisfy WSCTC timeline concerns, stimulate the economy with some jobs right now, and show the NBA that we are going to improve the facility on our own no matter what Ballmer does do. Being able to commit putting an NBA team in Seattle would go much faster if construction was in motion, even if it isn't the sports effected portion of the statement of work.

TheNewsTribune.com: The City of Seattle will present its proposal on Dec. 1 to a task force created by the Legislature

2008-10-28T23:21:00.001-07:00

In yesterday's Tacoma news Tribune Eric D. Williams reported that on December 1st the City of Seattle will present its proposal for renovating Key Arena to the Washington State Joint Task Force on Local Financing Options for King County.

A couple interesting paragraphs at the end of the story should give readers an idea of what role Brian Robinson is taking.

The city will have another supporter championing its proposal in Olympia. Brian Robinson, co-founder of the group Save Our Sonics, is part of a lobbying group called Sports and Activities for Families. The group plans to help the city’s funding proposal pass in Olympia. The group's effort will be led by Ryan Dicks, son of U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair.

"We want to put this issue in front of the legislators and make sure it doesn’t get dropped," Robinson said. "We’re going to go to work to make sure that it stays front and center and receives some of the publicity that the city hasn’t been good in attracting."

Tax money key to arena renovation, ERIC D. WILLIAMS; eric.williams@thenewstribune.com, Published: October 28th, 2008 12:30 AM

The Sonics were not Saved, okay. The franchise left, the symbols went to the Museum of History and Industry.
The effort here, and in other places, is to resolve the arena issue. My interest is centered on the Seattle Center, and that a dead Key Arena on the Seattle center site is a drag on the entire site. Many of us hard core Sonics fans have let the idea of the team, and the NBA, go as a goal. Brian Robinson has written as much at SonicsCentral.com: What if we don’t miss them?
The question Mr. Robinson asks is this:

I have to ask former Sonics fans, and fans of the NBA, what the risk to the league is in our valuable market. What if we simply don’t miss them? What if we fail to get it done this year and then decide not to spend more effort on it going forward?

My answers are these:
The risk to the league is that the value is contained in the interest and value of the markets competing for the product (pretty basic business value relationship). If you can not find a buyer for a house then the value drops. I think this is where the NBA really is, that they are a bubble economy, and that Seattle, as well as Oklahoma City are presenting remodeled arenas as preferred venues. Kansas City is offering the same thing, St. Louis as well. I will not be shocked to see the Kings effort to build a new arena in a major new development in California fall through. That is not just a function of the current economy, but the actual market for the NBA. Key Arena renovation is the best offer this market, or any market, should be offering the NBA product. They are 3 years away from reliving the NHL process of 5 years ago if they are not careful. David Stern is not careful, he is chasing the business model that crushed the NHL, nobody wins.

What if Brian Robinson and the lobbying group called Sports and Activities for Families, along with the City of Seattle, fail? Then they should accept the reality that they made the best of this effort, but the public/private partnership to rebuild an arena will not produce a solution. Done.
Thanks Brian.
City, you are now obligated to get out of the way of a private group that may want to build a new arena, maybe partner with that group to provide a way for a private group to locate land in the city for an arena, and figure out a redueced role or date to close it.

Key Arena is not likely going to survive in this market long term without a significant upgrade. Either compete or not, if the answer is not then crush most of Key Arena and use the bowl as an out door, partly covered amphitheater, when a new private arena takes its place 10 years from now.

I started my blog right after the city and Clay Bennett agreed that there would be a settlement. I have moved on. Brian Robinson has moved on. Move on.
If you still want NBA basketball, it only happens with an arena.
If you never want to see NBA basketball again and you live in Seattle, your public arena is dying, you can get a 300 million dollar upgrade for 150 million dollars in mostly hotel taxes, or Sonics fans parking and buying tickets.

The fans have mostly moved on from the team leaving, hopefully the sports haters can as well, and recognize that their memory of Key Arena is the only current thing about that public building.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
Sent from my iPhone

SonicsCentral.com: Both Candidates on the Record

2008-10-28T08:56:00.001-07:00

Both Candidates on the Record
The following was posted at SonicsCentral by Brian Robinson of Save Our Sonics.

We were very thankful to recieve a statement yesterday from Governor Gregoire. I will say that my own communication with her office has been excellent and that the delay in recieving her statement was 100% our error.

I found it especially interesting that she mentions the scope of the construction project and the jobs created. This is a change in rhetoric that is pretty substantial and something I was hoping would get mentioned for a long time:

Statement from Christine Gregoire:
It was a sad day for our region the day the Sonics left.

My husband Mike and I are big sports fans. In fact, we were original Seahawk season ticket holders, and we already have season tickets to the Seattle Sounders FC.

I understand how strongly Sonics fans feel about the loss of the team, and I want to tell you the truth about how we got where we are today.

Let’s talk about what happened earlier this year. The last ditch effort by the new ownership group to improve Key Arena had to be supported by the Legislature in Olympia. Only the Legislature could grant King County the authority to raise taxes for the arena.

This vote wasn’t taken because it would have failed. If a vote had been forced, it would have failed. It’s that simple.

If the legislature rushed to a vote and it failed, the message sent to the NBA would be that Washingtonians won’t support professional basketball. And that is not true.

Now, let’s talk about where we are today. First and foremost, we need to work together to make Key Arena attractive to another NBA team and find out how to bring them here.

My office has been working with those involved on a proposal to use existing tourist tax revenue to fund renovations at the Key. Currently there is a seven percent tax on hotel rooms in Seattle; this money goes to convention center operations. The plan, which is still being negotiated, would take one-tenth of that revenue stream and put it toward the renovation of the Key.

This existing revenue would be joined with a large private investment from the local ownership group and presumably, if the legislature acts, from $30 million from the Oklahoma City owners as part of their settlement.

I want to work with the local ownership group and you to see what can be done.

Our nation has found itself in troubling economic times and while we must find balance in funding our priorities, a $300 million construction project will help create jobs in the short term. In addition to placing Seattle in a position to regain the Sonics, a long-term result of this effort would be the start of a re-energized Seattle Center.

What would my Republican opponent do? I don’t know. He was asked directly at the KING5 debate and he wouldn’t answer the question.

He has said many times that he would fix our roads and cut taxes. But last week he told The Herald in Everett that he wouldn’t do either of those for at least three years, maybe longer.

He hasn’t promised to do anything to bring an NBA team to our state.

When he was a senator, he opposed letting voters decide if they wanted to fund Seahawks Stadium. There was no risk to him. He just had to give the authorization for a vote, but he wouldn’t.

Maybe this is just fine with you - but not me. I think the only thing he’s demonstrating here is political opportunism.

We may not agree on everything, but at least I’ll give you a straight answer.

During my second term, I will work with your group and local leaders to look at our priorities, our resources and continue to try and bring the NBA back to Seattle.

Statement from Dino Rossi:
October 20, 2008
Back in the spring our elected officials in Olympia, for the 4th year in a row, decided they were not interested in being proactive in keeping the Sonics in Seattle. Despite being briefed in advance, and presented with a proposal early on, they claimed they didn’t have time to adopt a “no brainer” solution. In fact they spent more time making excuses for not having time than it would have taken to give the City of Seattle permission to move ahead in negotiations… and then they went home early. This permission would have prevented the relocation approval from the NBA which in the end became the driving force for the buyout the city accepted.

As you all recall you flooded Olympia with emails and phone calls swamping the message takers and showing overwhelming support for a solution. You sent the message loud and clear that a failure this time would have repercussions.

This year is our last chance
So now we are faced with going back to Olympia in January, for the 5th year in a row, and asking that the City be given permission to route surplus tourist taxes only collected in Seattle to fill out the last $75 million of a 50/50 public/private investment to save Seattle Center from collapse and prepare Key Arena for restoring SuperSonics basketball to Seattle. With this proposal we will have our team back within 5 years or Clay Bennett will be forced to pay the city $30 million of what little he has left after his ownership group was decimated in the recent stock market crash. A failure this next legislative session will signal the end of any short term chance of restoring our team and lets Clay Bennett of the hook for this payment.
With the definition of insanity being repeating the same actions and expecting a different result we have to ask ourselves if we trust the current elected officials in Olympia to back up the statements made last spring with action?

If you do, then by all means vote for the same people who showed no consideration for the urgency of the situation, if you don’t then you should give this serious consideration when casting your votes. Save Our Sonics is committed to working with whoever is in Olympia to resolve this problem but now is our chance to make sure those we will be working with are going to be solution oriented.

Now the control is on your hands
Save Our Sonics is not a political action committee. We do not spend money advocating for or against any candidate for elected office, or endorse any candidates, but we do want our members to be well informed when they cast their votes. We have extended an invitation to both candidates for Governor to submit a statement of support to our group. To date only one has responded and that statement is included below. If we get a response from the other we will forward it to you later. We also urge you to contact the candidates for your districts Legislative seats and ask them how they will respond to this problem come January and educate your friends and family who will lead in Olympia and who should be replaced.

Statement from Dino Rossi:

I proudly stood along the parade route in 1979 when the Sonics won the championship. I never wanted the Sonics to leave Seattle. Early this year, I was asked to remain silent on the proposed Key Arena renovation offer by representatives of the group of private investors so Governor Gregoire could support it without suffering political repercussions. But when I read the headline of the Oklahoman newspaper near the end of the legislative session that read ‘Washington governor gives up: Official says there is no saving Sonics,’ I knew we had to act and I publicly supported the public-private partnership. Still, Gregoire remained silent.

Bringing NBA basketball back to Seattle will require creative thinking and courageous leadership on behalf of elected officials and basketball fans. As governor, I will actively support efforts to make this happen. What happened with the Sonics is evidence that Olympia is missing real leadership. I’m running for Governor to start making decisions and fixing problems facing our state. Professional basketball has been an important piece of our cultural fabric here in Washington, but now that piece is missing. I look forward to the day where we once again have an NBA basketball team in Seattle, and as governor I’ll work to make that happen.

Please make sure you vote!

In the end, they can fight about who has a real desire to solve the problem, and that both failed to deliver votes last legislative session.
I win either way.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
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KING COUNTY PROJECTS FINANCING TASK FORCE

2008-10-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to the Joint Task Force on Local Financing Options for King County

And the October 1st meeting where they collected presentations. Including information on the current arenas in the NBA, directly linked here.

The July 10th letter from the Mayor of Seattle describes the request that is consistent with all media reports over the past three months, including yesterday.
Letter from Mayor Nichols, Gregory J Nichols, Mayor of Seattle

Here is the direct link to the Qwest Field presentation, QWEST FIELD AND EVENT CENTER
Presentation to Joint Task Force,
King County Local Financing
Options
October 1, 2008

Here is the University of Washington's blog post from July, their presentation is here!

Here is an unofficial and independent source of input and information, and is not affiliated with any school, team or league. called Tell a Husky! supporting the University of Washington's effort.

Some day there will be a Seattle Center presentation, right?

Seattle PI: A new NBA team here?

2008-10-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

Reported in the Seattle PI today, front page, above the fold was a story titled A new NBA team here?
Guys with little else to do right now, that happen to be newspaper reporters, were noted sports columnist Art Thiel, and former Sonics Beat reporter Gary Washburn.

This is the time that I expected stories to come out, to quote myself from Saturday, September 13, 2008:

The reality for the city, Hunter, Chris Gregoire, Rossi, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, and Brian Robinson, is that the first NBA season without the Sonics in Seattle is Tuesday, October 28th, one full week before election day. This is in time to be right in front of the majority citizens that vote by mail.

The first NBA preseason game is October 5th (I had to look it up). The sports columnists, reporters, journalists, bloggers, sports radio, will have nothing much to cover in the two weeks leading up to that because the Seattle Seahawks have a bye week the prior Sunday. That is two weeks without meaningful local NFL coverage. The Seattle Mariners season officially ends September 28th. The NBA, and the missing team story, will fill the hole in the sports section at some point during that period. What else are they going to write about?

Well, Mr Thiel and Washburn have made great use of their downtime between baseball season and whatever it is that is being called football right now. I was worried that the kind of story that would be written would rip down any real hope, or present such an incomplete story that the average reader would dismiss future efforts out-of-hand.
Thankfully, this is not the case.
The dynamic duo did a reasonably thorough job of stating the basic parts of the tax elements, and the needed quotes from the three legs that an NBA deal is set on: political figures, ownership, and David Stern.
Many of the details I have speculated about here, or re-reported from a variety of places.

Let's take a look at the meaty bits from the report.

A new plan to divert a portion of hotel-tax money from the state convention center to a remodel of KeyArena could help Seattle begin pursuing a replacement NBA team as soon as 2010.

That is pretty solid: tax revenue, Key Arena, replacement team as soon as 2010. My early guess was 2011, I would feel good about being wrong there.

NBA Commissioner David Stern said Thursday "positive" talks have gone on between the league and a potential ownership group headed by Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, who led an ill-fated plan to save the Sonics earlier this year.

Stern, and Ballmer have talked according to Stern. This really should put to rest the fretting some fans have been doing about this situation.

Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis confirmed the talks, and said he was optimistic that this time around the city's request for state authorization will meet little resistance when the Legislature convenes in January.

"It should be noncontroversial, because it's a city-only tax that already exists and will not be an increase," Ceis said of the latest attempt to find a long-sought public portion of a proposed $300 million renovation for a building currently deemed financially obsolete by the National Basketball Association.

"If we can get our funding package together this session, we can start to work with the Ballmer group on identifying a team for Seattle, but probably not until 2010."

Stern, speaking to reporters on his annual season-tipoff conference call, made his first public comments on Seattle since the Sonics left.

"I don't want to mislead, so I will say that we have had some contact and we're aware of what's going on," he said. "I'd rather not deal with the specifics of it at this time, but we have had some positive contact."

While no city official has talked to Stern, Ceis said standard procedure always has been for Stern to go through the owner, or potential owner. He confirmed that Stern and Ballmer have talked, and Ballmer conveyed the new funding plan for the public portion of the remodel.

That is your deal right there. The city has insulated a funding resource from as many people that thought they had a right to say no about it. Until there is an official source for the money you are not going to get solid responses from David Stern, and why should he.
Here is the tax:

The tax under consideration is different from the so-called stadium taxes from King County that the Sonics, as well as the University of Washington, pursued in recent sessions to fund their sports building projects.

A 7 percent tax on all hotel bills within the city long has been dedicated to convention center operations. The city, which is still negotiating with the hotel industry and center officials on the proposal, seeks to divert one-tenth of the revenue to Seattle Center and the KeyArena project.

Ceis said that growth in hotel-room rentals over the past 10 years is generating enough revenue for the diversion to produce over a 15-year period the $75 million necessary to finance construction debt without compromising convention center operations.

There is more than was planned, nobody gets hurt, and he didn't mention that the tax really can't be used for anything else, not for schools, not for lost puppies. It doesn't come from there and the hotel owners that are impacted by its application don't want it going there. That's a general fund responsibility, this isn't general fund money. It's the law.

The settlement, which paid off the $34 million in construction bond debt remaining from a remodel completed in 1995, included a provision for another $30 million to the city by 2013 if an NBA team had not moved to Seattle. But the city had to have an NBA-ready arena, or the funding committed for one, by Dec. 31, 2009.

For practical purposes, that means the pending session in Olympia will be last chance for any funding requiring state authorization.

Asked why the city didn't come up with this idea while the Sonics were still in town, Ceis said the focus was on finding revenue that didn't require state approval. Even though this revenue still requires a legislative OK, the source is strictly city taxes, not county, and provides an upgrade for a city-owned building that helps draw tourists to city hotels.

"It's the path of least resistance, and there's no competition for the funds," he said.

At the time of the settlement, which was widely criticized as insufficient for the loss of a 41-year civic institution, the city defended itself in part by saying it was necessary to repair the damaged relationship with the NBA in order to have a shot at another team. The $30 million penalty gave the NBA and Bennett a financial incentive to help fill the void.

Ceis said that if the $300 million funding were in hand, the city would firm up the remodel plans that would allow Ballmer to pursue a team. He stressed that the city would not go forward with the remodel until an ownership group secured a team.

What Ceis is not saying is that the law that this funding was part of, and Safeco Field that the University of Washington wants, wasn't changed until March, and didn't go into effect until July 1, 2009. The source was there, but not available to Seattle to use.
Senate Bill 6638
Passed by the Senate March 13, 2008
YEAS 43 NAYS 6

Now, bring in the undertaker:

Since the NBA has no current plans to expand domestically, the only option would be to relocate a team from another city.

As many as half the teams in the NBA may have had operating losses last season, and some of the smaller-market teams have been in financial trouble for a while, including Memphis, New Orleans and Milwaukee. The Sacramento Kings also have been stymied in securing public funding for a replacement building for Arco Arena.

Unless a team is at the end of its lease, the Ballmer group would be in the same position Bennett was in Seattle -- an out-of-town owner attempting to pull away a team under contract with its city.

Ceis said that if a team is secured, the city has provisions to do the remodel before arrival, or to work around a six-month NBA regular season.

Matt Griffin, a Seattle real estate developer and Ballmer friend who served as his spokesman in the earlier attempt to save the Sonics, confirmed by phone Thursday night the group's awareness of and interest in the city's new initiative, but said little about the potential pursuit of a team.

"The first thing has to be the funding," he said. "We told the mayor in April that we were interested in keeping KeyArena from becoming a white elephant that drags down Seattle Center and lower Queen Anne.

"We can't take step two before we take step one. Once the funding happens, we can roll up our sleeves and take a look at what needs to be done."

A new NBA team here?
Tax diversion plan could give city the money for KeyArena
By ART THIEL AND GARY WASHBURN
P-I REPORTERS

That's right, Seattle will likely take a failing franchise from another city, a city that will be a smaller market, that may have been placed in that market by design of David Stern's plan to have his teams be the big show in smaller towns. Well, some of those towns simply can not afford David Stern's NBA, even when they supply a new building.

What David Stern wanted in Seattle was a building that can support a franchise. Hopefully the lesson beyond the building, that will be the second relocation to a remodeled building, is that it isn't always the newness of the building, but the community and businesses that support it. Not being able to make the NBA work here for the Sonics has everything to do with the NBA's business model of growing beyond its habitat and always expecting the place to be more plentiful.
If there is a bubble economy, it is the NBA, and doing anything for them beyond a remodel is foolishness. So, unless you have a much bigger reason to build a new and bigger building, don't build one.

I rank the possible related team by who is most likely to come here after 2010:
Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Hornets, Charlotte Bobcats, and Milwaukee Bucks have been walking the tightrope for as long as I can remember, I think they stay. The Sacramento Kings are more likely to be the team to get to Las Vegas.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
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USAToday.com : Seattle mayor still eyeing NBA's return

2008-10-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

Reported by AP reporter Gregg Bell, Seattle mayor Greg Nickels stated that he has sent a proposal to Washington state lawmakers requesting funding for a renovation of Key Arena. The request should be part of the next legislative session in January.

"We'll be going to the Legislature in their next session" beginning in January, Nickels said Monday at a ceremony inside KeyArena to announce Seattle University will be using it when the school returns to Division I basketball this season for the first time since 1980.
Nickels said Seattle will ask for state authorization to divert 1 percent of the existing hotels tax in Seattle from the convention and visitors bureau to the city. He said the convention center no longer needs that revenue and the city should get it.
"Those funds (would be) available for an NBA franchise," he said.
They potentially could generate enough money to back $75 million in bonds - the missing piece in a $300 million arena renovation plan proposed by Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer. Ballmer's group would contribute $150 million, and another $75 million would be culled in city dollars from other sources.
In a statement immediately after the Sonics and Seattle settled their lease dispute in July, which allowed the team to move to Oklahoma City, NBA commissioner David Stern said the league would assist in helping Seattle acquire a new team if state lawmakers approve a KeyArena remodel before the end of 2009.
"We think the door is open there," Nickels said Monday. "We feel like there's a working relationship possible there."
. . .
Even though Seattle's latest plan asks for far less, legislative leaders aren't thrilled the NBA and now Seattle officials are trying to force a 2009 deadline upon them.

"It's not going to work, with these 147 individually elected members of the state Legislature, to threaten them and bully them," House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, said in July. "God love the fans, but we have a state to run. And I think the city of Seattle, they have to go out and make their case to the state."

The city, as I have been saying forever, has to educate and communicate with people like Kessler that are existing in a low information world.

The Seattle mayor feels "the door is open" to the league returning to what would be a remodeled KeyArena.

From the Seattle Times, in the story about Seattle U playing basketball games in key Arena:

"We're beginning that process of getting back to exciting basketball at KeyArena," Nickels said. "Seattle has been a great basketball town for a long time even before the Sonics. So we think this will keep that tradition alive, and we'll see what happens in the next couple of years."
Since agreeing to a $45 million settlement with the then-Sonics' owners, Nickels said the city hasn't had contact with the NBA about returning to Seattle. He also said there's been no significant progress toward a proposed $300 million KeyArena renovation.
"We've had some conversations with [state lawmakers], but obviously they're all focused on the elections that's two weeks from [Tuesday]," Nickels said. "We'll really be veering up between then and when the session begins in January.
"We're going to do everything we can to educate the legislators to the importance of this arena and the importance of having that dedicated revenue available should another NBA team become available."

Seattle University off on fast break
, Percy Allen, Seattle Times.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
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SeattlePI.com: Seattle U steps into void

2008-10-20T19:53:00.001-07:00

As was mentioned here over the weekend, Seattle University is planning on playing games in Key Arena. The first game is January 1st, one game this season, with many games to come in following seasons. This is Seattle U's return to Division I baskerball, after being out of Division I for 29 years.
This may look like Seattle U is taking dates vacated by the dearly departed Seattle SuperSonics until you look around the country and see college basketball being played in a few of the same facilities as NBA teams. Madison Square Garden comes to mind.
I would like to see as much basketball as possible played in Key Arena: Sonics, Storm, Seattle U, high school city finals.
Read the AP story here; Seattlepi.com Seattle University

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
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"KeyArena scrambles to fill dates left by Sonics", NWCN.com

2008-10-18T08:42:00.000-07:00

Half of the dates left open by taking the buyout from Bennett have been filled. Businesses around the arena do not think shows like "Thomas the Tank Engine" will bring as much activity. Seattle University is expected to announce a basketball game in January to be played there, and possibly more.

The claim is that these individual events can bring in more money per event. The problem is that there are half as many, and nobody can say that these activities could not have been booked to take place between NBA basketball games. It isn't as if every date was filled except the dates occupied by NBA games. Prior years had seen 140 to 160 events. This next year might see 80 to 120. It is simply a smaller scale. The claim per event is the one bright spot as long as you do not look at the overall schedule of dark nights. Fewer people going to Key Arena will likely mean fewer people going to Seattle Center.

The majority of Sonics season ticketholders traveled in from outside the Seattle City limits. Fewer people will have fewer reasons to travel into Seattle and Key Arena.
That is the bottom line, on the city's bottom line.
http://www.nwcn.com/sports/stories/NW_101708SPB_keyarena_dates_KS.122135003.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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Husky Stadium Proposal

2008-10-17T14:56:00.001-07:00

Linked below is the 16 page proposal the University of Washington has published in support of their request for support from the state Task Force.
The question is: where is the City of Seattle's version of this?
Where is their publication that describes their plan?

community resource and public asset for everyone Husky Stadium

Have a great day,
Mr Baker
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"UW regents approve cash for stadium renovation" KING5.com, News for Seattle, Washington

2008-10-16T18:22:00.001-07:00

Today on KING tv's 5pm news broadcast reporter Chris Daniels said that the University of Washington has authorized spending $3,000,000.00 on preplanning for Husky Stadium's $300,000,000.00 rebuild.

Mr. Daniels did report, as I have made clear, that the university is looking to tap the existing hotel/motel car rental taxes that are currently paying off Safeco and Qwest construction costs, to cover half of the cost. This is not the same tax the City of Seattle is interested in, that being a hotel tax being used by the Washington State Trade and Convention Center.

Comparitively, Key Arena looks smaller, since the city is paying 1/4 of the cost, with the city and state getting their return on investment on user taxes collected at and around Sonics games. It isn't clear yet what the return on investment is back to the state is on Husky Stadium rebuild. UW Athletic Director, Mr. Woodward, went ahead and said the economy could use the jobs.
Hey, that's my line!
http://www.king5.com husky stadium
Have a great day,
Mr Baker
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"Still shooting at 73l" Knoxville News Sentinel

2008-10-16T14:50:00.001-07:00

You should be so lucky.
Ken Mink, 73 years old, plays college basketball.
Print this out, roll it up, and wrap Nick Licata on the nose with it.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/oct/04/still-shooting-at-73/

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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"Crunch time in Seattle sports" Art Thiel

2008-10-14T23:19:00.001-07:00

Thiel makes nessisary light of the fall of Aubrey McClendon. Then he
goes on to say that Key Arena and Huskie stadium face a tough economy
for requesting public money.

The Key Arena project has a payoff for all of the public money.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/thiel/383326_thiel15.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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James Donaldson not as optimistic as Gary Payton about NBA team" Seattle Times Newspaper

2008-10-14T22:27:00.001-07:00

Fair enough, Donaldson is not wanting to be part of an ownership
group, but to be a Seattle City Councilman in place of Nick Licata, or
Jan Drago, or Richard McGyver (sp).
I would rather have him on the council than the ownership group.

On his second point, the NBA not returning for 5-10 years is pretty
far out. The only thing keeping a team from relocating to Seattle on,
or shortly after, 2011 is renovating Key Arena.

It is tough to see California getting a new arena deal approved for
the Kings next year. David Stern was pleased to announce a group
including the NBA was working on a solution, he also said they would
work on it for one year.

The Griz are bleeding money, 5-7 million a year no matter what the do.

The Hornets have had its population evacuate a couple months ago to
avoid another natural disaster, couple that with this economy, and it
will be tough for them to hit the ticket sales the owner, Greorge
Shinn, has set.

The Charlotte Bobcats are a money loser, but the lease is going to be
tough to get out of.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sonics/2008263307_soni14.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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On The Media: Transcript of "The Calculated Risk of Blogging" (October 3, 2008)

2008-10-13T11:11:00.001-07:00

Why I am paranoid when depending on the compitence of others: The
Calculated Risk of Blogging.

BOB GARFIELD: Last week, the blog search engine Technorati released its annual State of the Blogosphere. The conclusion? The state of the blogosphere is strong. In fact, almost half of the 133 million blogs that have been created since 2002 were created in the past year and a half.

But something else was created in direct proportion — potential liability for libel, copyright infringement, defamation or invasion of privacy. The Media Bloggers Association tracks the rising number of lawsuits against bloggers, and MBA founder Robert Cox says that even frivolous litigation costs money to defend, and legitimate claims have no limit.

The mere threat of a lawsuit, he says, is sometimes enough to scare writers out of the blogosphere altogether.
. . .
BOB GARFIELD: All right, one last thing, Bob. There’s a legal principle known as deep pockets. Lawsuits tend to get filed in direct [LAUGHS] relationship to defendant’s ability to pay an eventual judgment.

By insuring bloggers, aren't you deepening their pockets and actually creating a market for litigation that didn't hitherto exist?

ROBERT COX: Bloggers do have assets already. They have future income streams, they have homes, they have cars. And if they lose a judgment and they don't pay the sheriff will be knocking at their door and it won't matter whether they have insurance or not.
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2008/10/03/06

I spend more time than I should explicitly covering my journalistic ass in the few places I blog outside of here, not because of what I might write. Word to the wise, CYA.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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Gary Payton Raises the Flag

2008-10-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

Before the Seattle Seahawks football game yesterday Gary Payton was given the honor of raising a cerimonial "12th man" flag by the Paul Allen owned NFL team.

Paul Allen was one of two NBA owners to vote no one the Sonics franchise relocation to Oklahoma City. He also has ownership of the Portland Trail Blazers. He also has the Experience Music Project rock-roll / sci-fi museum situated next to the Seattle Center. He also has a major land development nearby in the South Lake Union neighborhood. He also has something to do with the company Steve Ballmer is CEO of, Microsoft.

Steve Ballmer is is the major money player in the Seattle Center Investment group that, not obvious in its name, is offering to be the private portion of a public/private partnership to rebuild Key Arena and buy an NBA franchise to occupy it. They tilt toward reviving Seattle Center (so do I).

Back to the future, yesterday, and Gary Payton.

Payton was quoted as saying (see 2 prior posts) that he thinks the NBA will return to Seattle by 2011. He is contacting other former players to put a group together to approach the local financial interests to get a Key Arena solution done. He identified one name, James
Donaldson. Donaldson is interested in running for Seattle City Council next year. He was the first NBA player I had bumped into in public, the summer he was drafted, before his rookie season, my brother and I ran into Mr Donaldson at . . . the Seattle Center between the Center House and the ferris wheel. He was there with his sister, from WSU, I was 15, he was really stood out above everybody else.

No, really, back to Gary Payton.

Some people make news, some people are news, Gary Payton is both. What this whole situation needs is a champion for the cause, an NBA Hall of Famer, and a direct connection to Seattle and the fans. I like Lenny Wilkins, but I love the Glove, it is generational. Payton is one
of the few in this world that could revive NBA interest in Seattle by 2011. He is still a superstar in Seattle. His interest is in the return of basketball to Key Arena. This should fit in with Ballmer's group. Maybe they can play on the same ownership team since they are looking at the same could. Maybe Gary can play public point man for this home as part of the ownership team.

Payton was critical of the former ownership group, lead by Howard Schultz, before Schultz sold and sued Clay Bennett. Are his critical remarks now a plus for him in the eyes of David Stern?
I doubt it matters now.

In the end the odds of Durant being a Seattle Sonic again just went wayyyyy up.
This is goodness.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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"Payton believes team will return to Seattle" AP

2008-10-12T19:11:00.001-07:00

Here is the AP story, Payton hopeful to get a team in Seattle by 2011.

SEATTLE -- Within three years, former Seattle SuperSonics guard Gary Payton believes the NBA will be returning to the city where he became a star.

Payton raised the "12th Man" flag at Qwest Field on Sunday before the NFL game between the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers. Payton said there has been talk among former players to revive a campaign to renovate Key Arena and to land a new team in Seattle.

"I think before 2011 a team will be here," Payton said. "A lot of things and speculation ... a lot of teams that want to move, so I think Seattle's got a good shot at it."http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_bkn_nba_seattle.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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"Gary Payton trying to get NBA team in Seattle" Seattle Times Newspaper

2008-10-12T14:53:00.001-07:00

This is great, a competing group to the Ballmer group, competing to be the one to own the team in this market.
Matt Griffin has said in the past that his group, Seattle Center Investors (SCI), is as their name implies. They do not want a dead Key Arena, that hurts the Seattle Center, in turn hurts Seattle.

GP's comments center around getting a franchise back here by 2011.

Let's get together and it will be alright.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2008259022_webpayton12.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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Shades of 1929 for Chesapeake’s Aubrey McClendon | Muckety.com - See the news

2008-10-11T13:59:00.001-07:00

Muckety has a nice interactive map, McClendon in the center, like a
black hole.

http://news.muckety.com/2008/10/11/shades-of-1929-for-chesapeake%E2%80%99s-aubrey-mcclendon/5741

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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"Judge limits fans' suit against ex-Sonics" Seattle PI

2008-10-11T08:21:00.001-07:00

In limiting the case the PBC may be exchanging that for having to sell
season tickets for the 2009-2010 season to the Seattle season ticket
holders that were cheated by Bennett's fraudulent marketing at the
same price as they paid in Seattle for the 2007-2008 season. This
might only effect the people identified as having purchase that
Seattle ticket package. Maybe more.

So, a thousand people, or more, in Seattle may get to buy Thunder
tickets at a much lower price than they are currently sold at.
They could turn around and resell them for profit, or attend games.
More likely PBC will pay the difference.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basketball/382890_sonx11.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

Bend it Like Bennett, the blog

2008-10-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

http://benditlikebennett.blogspot.com/

Laugh with him, at them.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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Bend it Like Bennett Live From OKC - And One - cleveland.com - Cleveland.com

2008-10-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

Laugh your ass off.

http://blog.cleveland.com/andone/2008/10/bend_it_like_bennett_live_from.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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Kevin Pelton lives! SonicsCentral.com - Sonics basketball will return! » Blog Archive » Hello Again

2008-10-08T18:13:00.001-07:00

I am happy that Kevin Pelton found a way to keep going with the Seattle Storm.

Still, reading it gave me the blues, not sad, but the blues, knocked down, feeling old, and been done wrong, a bad western.

I am happy for Kevin, 6 years ago he caught the break, whirled in the blender of other people's blunder, and stands on his feet at the end. Tornados rip up houses and leave a few things in tact, as if. . .
Lucky him.

There wasn't anything natural about this disaster though. 5 or 6 years ago several of us "regulars" were unhappy with the reformat of the ESPN message boards, and the level of conversation, and maybe there was a lack of a sense of place. So, we escaped, 10 or 15 of us,
then 25 and more, and recruted people on other boards, alt.sonics, etc, and formed a group. Along that way a few of us put up web pages for fun and sport, when Kevin escaped to the bigtime, he left Sonicscentral site (not the stat portion where the grownups perfected
analysis).
The runaways from the other message boards churned out ideas of making a site, or taking over another one. Brian Robinson picked up Sonicscentral and a few if us agreed to write, the "Magnificent Seven". Really, Big Chris and Xteve really carried the mail pre and post game.
Media consumers keep coming back if they know there will be something new there on a regular basis. They, and Brian, did a great job.
They did.

Well, no point in waiting for FEMA.

I am inviting everybody that can, to get on with your lives. Enjoy the game again. I am going to try, maybe not today, but when the season starts, I am going to try.
I will keep this little blog going until there is no reason for it. I'll see if I can be the bigger person, bigger than Stern and Bennett. In the long run, they will be just as dead as everybody else. Life is too short for bitterness.
Let's go.

http://sonicscentral.com/blog/?p=2119

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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"Seattle to get less for KeyArena naming rights", Seattle Times Newspaper

2008-10-06T21:19:00.001-07:00

How is it penciling out now, Nick Licata?

Congrats, dumbass.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008233285_webkeyarena06m.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

"Maybe Sonics leaving town isn’t so bad" John McGrath, TheNewsTribune.com

2008-10-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

Short sighted, baseball sufferer, and bitter basketball observer, John McGrath says that "Maybe the Sonics Leaving Town" is not such a bad thing. I agree that the franchise owner is horrible, but franchise owners come and go, less often than GM's and coaches, and players, and sports reporters, but they do change. But, a franchise should outlast all that, it is part of my cultural life, it should outlive me. I am hopeful that the State of Washington, the City of Seattle, Steve Ballmer, and you can right the wrong. While there are activities at the state level going on we have John McGrath writing shit like this.

John McGrath, you are no help.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/story/499904.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

In "Other News"

2008-10-01T14:19:00.000-07:00

OT (off topic)...
Today U.S News & World Report has reported a major discovery: The
Obesity Gene Linked is to Colon Cancer and Other News.
The big question is: what "Other News" is the Obesity Gene linked to?

Hey, maybe the other news is the Seattle 2009-2010 Proposed City Budget process has started.

Mayor Greg Nickels has added to the CIP (Cap Improvement) in his proposed budget a line item in the CULTURE AND RECREATION section, sub-section Seattle Center in the Narrative on page #2 "In addition, funding is added in 2009 and 2010 for general building improvements at KeyArena."

Seattle Center Project Detail
PDF page 9 of 26 (181 of the budget) has the following item: KeyArena Improvements & Repairs

This ongoing project provides for major maintenance and improvements to KeyArena. Improvements may include, but
are not limited to, lighting upgrades, replacement of the basketball floor and other event components, creation of special
seating sections and partial house configurations to increase revenue, technology upgrades, and funding of concept plans
for future facility upgrades. These improvements both maintain basic building operations and facility integrity and
enhance KeyArena’s position in the highly competitive sports and entertainment marketplace.

As always "*This detail is for information only. Funds are appropriated in the budget at the Budget Control Level. Amounts in thousands of dollars."

As noted on the Seattle City Council web page, public comment is encouraged.

Storm offseason unsettled

2008-09-25T23:36:00.001-07:00

"The Storm belongs in Key Arena, and I think everybody knows that."

They are not the only ones, and I think everyone will come to
understand that over the next 9 months.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/wnba/380715_storm26.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

My reader response to the PI Editorial was posted in the Virtual Editorial Blog

2008-09-24T11:28:00.001-07:00

I was a little tired last night when I pecked out my response to the PI Editorial yesterday on the Sonics settlement money, and it shows. I made a few word choice errors in typing on my iPhone.
Anyway, glad the PI is taking my side, and re-sharing my response to them on today's VEB. Losing the additional 30 million dollars and allowing Key Arena to turn into a long-term white elephant is just not ok.
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/veb/archives/149496.asp

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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"Seattle Center: Silver-lined arena" Seattle PI Editorial

2008-09-23T22:52:00.001-07:00

The Seattle PI has voiced its opinion on what should happen to the
settlement money, 45 million dollars from Clay Bennett: pay off the
arena debt. Then they pretty much accepted the city accountant's
suggestions.
I do not agree with replacing "lost" revenue from the city allowing
the Sonics franchise owners to leave two years early. They accepted
that future by accepting the settlement.
The money should pay off the debt, yes, but it should also go to
upgrades needed to attract non-sports activity currently going up to
the Everett Events Center, or down to the Tacoma Dome.

The Seattle PI editorial also lent strong words in support of getting
the state legislature to act on authorizing a funding source for the
state's portion of a Key Arena remodel to be spent if Steve Ballmer is
able to buy another NBA team.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/380253_arenaed.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

Dispatches from the Tenth Circle - The Sonic's Fan Version

2008-09-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

There are parts of the saga of the Sonics' fan that sometimes remind me of something I might have read in The Onion's book, Dispatches from the Tenth Circle. It appeared, at first, that the only people interested in keeping the Sonics in Seattle were the fans, and in the end that is exactly the case.

It has been my contention for the past few years that there are three parties involved, the NBA not being one of them. David Stern acts on behalf of the owner, or potential owner if you are Steve Ballmer or Clay Bennett. So, we really do have the owner of the franchise, the politicos/NGO's (westside Democrats & eastside Repubicans), and absolutely lastly, the fans. All three of those perspectives are required for any major profession sports team to exist in Seattle. This may be the case in other cities, only the names are changed to protect the rich, and deflect criticism away from politicians.

From the word Go, the city has planned on the Sonics leaving, and the owners (any of them) were going to get more revenue no matter where the team was eventually located. When Howard Schultz was owner of the Sonics, and Brian Robinson was acting the part of journalist, he made every effort to help efforts to keep the franchise going long-term in Seattle. That effort didn't change when Clay Bennett purchased the Sonics (though not with the same sense that the owner was holding up his end of the stick.
When Clay Bennett announced that he was giving up and was going to move the team that put the city and Bennett on a collision course, and flipped Brian Robinson from journalist to advocate, and started Save Our Sonics with Steve Pyeatt.

At about that point season ticket holders, that were sold tickets under the pretense that they could purchase season tickets in 2008 and 2009, started to wonder if they had any recourse. They were sold something with the possibility of a benefit in the future while at the same time the team owner was actively trying the make sure those conditions would not be possible. Had they known at the time of purchase that Clay Bennett was begging the league to relocate in time for that same 2007 - 2008 season would those people have purchased their tickets?
In a few cases yes, in many cases no, in either case the consumers in Washington State have the right to know.
Asking Brian Robinson if he knows a lawyer they could hire isn't much of a conspiracy.

And yet, Clay Bennett's lawyer, Sideshow Bob Keller has demanded every email he has that also include the city and more. This does not have much to do with fraud, I honestly think this has everything to do with the fans, including Brian Robinson, costing Bennett at least 20 million dollars, and possibly 30 million more in 5 years.

All the while, quite a few of us Sonics fans have carried on conversations on message boards, newsgroups, listserves, some stretching back nearly 10 years. At various times groups I have had some contact with, public and private, sorted themselves out. A few of us took to writing about the Sonics on a few blogs, and there was an inside/outside the "circle" mostly expessed in a humorist way. As Brian gained connections with reporters, and people working in government and the last two ownership groups, and publicly lamented that they were not always open with him, my guess is that fodder will result in a lot of meaningless paper dumped in Keller's lap.

For me, a paranoid guy that just wanted to write, I opted out of anything that could be described, even jokingly, as an inner circle, and made a few people very unhappy with me. Well, the choices we make are not always clear to the others around us at the time. There wasn't much upside, and the downside looked something a bit worse than what Brian is dealing with right now.
Rich guys have lawyers that have nothing better to do, and they have to bill hours.
No thanks.
As for the idea of circles, what the center of some circles look like are not as positive for the Seattle community as Brian Robinson.

Sometime in the late 20th century the rings of Hell were redefined, and expanded after a new 10th Circle, Corpadverticus, was discovered (see chart, above).
There, near the lower right of the graph, is a red characiture that may or may not be Brad Keller, also known as "Sideshow" Brad by me.

And so, in today's Seattle PI, the venn diagram of all these circles, owners, politicos, and fans, has shown a new color of light: green for the fans.
The fans are not going to run for re-election, they do not have stock holders, and they are not inventing a new scenario (Washington State has a fraud law).
Keller is racking up billing hours on Brian Robinson's back before the music stops, the ride is over, and Bennett pulls the plug.

Save Our Sonics cites subpoena 'attack'
Team owners try to link group with ticket holders' suit

By GREG JOHNS
P-I REPORTER

The Sonics may be gone, but the court fight hasn't quite ended between Clay Bennett's ownership group and some Seattle sports fans.

A class-action suit filed by three former Sonics season ticket holders has escalated into a growing war of words and court filings, the latest surrounding Save Our Sonics co-founder Brian Robinson and what he must turn over to the Professional Basketball Club attorneys in discovery for a scheduled March 2 trial.

PBC lawyers served a subpoena on Robinson and the Save Our Sonics organization on Aug. 25 seeking e-mails and records regarding the group's interaction with city of Seattle officials, NBA representatives, the fans filing the class-action suit and numerous other matters.

Robinson's attorney, Paul Schneiderman, sought to limit the scope of the initial inquiry and the PBC responded by filing a motion to force compliance with the legal action.

Robinson now is agreeing to turn over some of what has been requested, but on a delayed basis.

The battle took a step up in volume Monday when Schneiderman filed a sharply worded response to U.S. District Judge Richard Jones accusing the PBC of launching an unnecessary attack on the Save Our Sonics group for its alleged role in bringing about the class-action suit against Bennett.

"The PBC, a combined billionaire group of Oklahoma-based NBA owners, have shockingly taken the unprecedented steps of attacking an all-volunteer NBA fan group in United States federal court," Schneiderman wrote.

The motion states that Bennett's attorneys are painting Robinson and his fan group as part of a "broader conspiracy" intended to bleed the PBC.

"The 'bleeding' allegations are Oliver Stone-like, conspiratorial in nature, and grossly distort and mischaracterize the actual efforts of Brian Robinson and SOS&S," the motion stated.

SOS&S refers to Save Our Sonics and Storm, the original name of the nonprofit corporation formed by Robinson in July 2006.

Part of Schneiderman's argument against the PBC's motion to compel the subpoena is based on the fact the PBC originally subpoenaed the Save Our Sonics group, but didn't subpoena the actual SOS&S affiliation.

PBC attorney Brad Keller said Robinson's attorney physically filed the original complaint against Bennett's ownership group.

"Robinson clearly played a role in orchestrating the lawsuit," Keller said. "We are just trying to get to the bottom of what his role was. Robinson shouldn't be resisting the subpoena if he has nothing to hide."

The entire case revolves around the three fans' attempts to hold Bennett's ownership group to what they perceived as a promise to give Sonics season ticket holders a three-year price guarantee and priority seating through the remainder of the former KeyArena lease.

Now that Bennett has moved the club to Oklahoma City, the suit seeks to force the PBC to guarantee the 1,387 Sonics season ticket holders from last year the right to buy similar seats at the Ford Center and also require the PBC to pay for travel accommodations that would now be necessary to attend the 41 home games in Oklahoma for the next two seasons.

PBC lawyers filed a motion last week asking the judge for summary judgment on the contract damages portion of the suit.

The PBC is attempting to show Robinson played a role in bringing about the fans' suit and thus they have a right to discovery concerning his group's actions.

In a declaration accompanying Monday's motion, Robinson acknowledged that he "referred several people to an attorney" in regards to a class-action fans suit, but denied any active role.

"The plaintiffs in the class action case have clearly made a decision to participate in this case without the active participation of SOS&S," Robinson wrote.

Robinson's attorney said the Oklahoma City owners are attempting to create a rift by doing everything possible to "alienate and inflict injury" on Seattle's NBA fan base in hopes of derailing the Save Our Sonics efforts to lobby the Washington Legislature for further KeyArena funding.

If the Legislature doesn't approve a $75 million tax stream to help rebuild KeyArena by Dec. 31, 2009, Bennett won't have to pay the city the final $30 million of the settlement package.

Robinson said that although the franchise has moved to Oklahoma, his goal is to "re-establish Seattle" as an NBA city and he intends to continue working toward a KeyArena funding solution.
As reported by Greg Johns of the Seattle PI.

My fuzzy memory is that the idea was floated on SonicsCentral.com, (you could put 100 other people in the "conspiracy" to not get screwed) those season ticket holders, I call fans, asked Brian if he knew a lawyer, and it looks like they found one.

Dively says "Put Sonics settlement toward KeyArena debt, budget director says", Seattle Times Newspaper

2008-09-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

And I say, screw you.
The city claimed to have 19 million dollars budgeted in the general
fund fir things like this. The city was the one that took they buyout,
causing the lawyer's fees to be encurred. That on the city.

The Key Arena debt should be retired.
The Seattle Center direction stated in the council sub-committee last
month that the Key Arena would not lose money once the debt was retired.
The 2007 mayor's study stated that the arena would require 30 million
dollars in investment if the Sonics were to leave, to make it at least
acceptable as a "minor league" venue.
That is 23 million plus 30 million, looks like the city needs to put
up 8 million, not suck money out of it and funnel it away to the
general fund.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008195837_websonicsmoney23m.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

" Clay Bennett's attorneys want Sonics fans' lawsuit dismissed" from Seattle Times Newspaper

2008-09-20T09:12:00.001-07:00

Fan's case still alive.
Good for them.
The Sonics story is still alive in the press, good for me.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sonics/2008191399_soni20.html

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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The Seattle Times - Guest Guesser

2008-09-20T07:49:00.000-07:00

Off Topic: Going into week three of the Seattle Times' football game picking contest, Guest Guesser, I am ranked at 138th of 3838 contestants. I really am guessing. I have not watched an entire football game in more than a year. I watch a few minutes here, and there, when I channel surf past local teams only. The percentages of other guessers selections are on the web page. The group, if large enough, and diverse enough, usually comes up with the best answer. At the very least, that is where the majority of selections are. The only "upset" I have actually picked is NE beating the J-E-T-S Jets last week, 24 to 17 (actual score was 19 - 10, I think).

Let's see how this plays out in real life the first Tuesday in November. My guess there will be as well informed as Akron v. Ball State last week; I do not have a clue, but I will pick one, because that is how the game is played.

http://seattletimes.upickem.net/upickem/registration/login.asp?contestid=2686

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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All your base are belong to us, or, Out of this World

2008-09-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

Another World, aka, Out of this World

Or

Zero Wing, aka, All your base are belong to us

What best abstract though best describes the future?

Thunder names TV announcers | NewsOK.com

2008-09-17T19:31:00.001-07:00

From Seattle to Oklahoma City;
from Kevin Calabro to . . . Brian Davis.

http://newsok.com/thunder-names-tv-announcers/article/3299094/?tm=1221688047

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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Crosscut's David Brewster asks - Could a convention center work at Seattle Center?

2008-09-17T15:38:00.001-07:00

The answers I have are:
Yes, if they are going to operate the meeting space and arena when Key
Arena is rebuilt.

No.

In either case the city is not going to promote a facility to be placed at Seattle Center ( or anywhere else in the city) while it is actively seeking part of the same revenue stream that the Washington State Convention & Trade Center currently enjoys. It is not going to promote convention space to be added while it is trying to fill its own space. The more likely spot is the "air space" above the King County bus ranch.

The fact is that the Washington State Convention & Trade Center people do not have an actionable plan. They have a want to grow in 3 possible spots with no scope of size (200 to 300 hundred square feet). They do not want to give up the revenue stream when their project is paid off. They have not proposed a cost, which might be hard to do without a real scope of work.

David Brewster has taken another swing at throwing this idea out there. I think that when he says that the "state" is interested he is also talking about Frank Choop.

He also gives Ron Sims' point of view. He did give the reaction from the spokesperson from the Seattle Center, that the city would not support a Seattle Center solution for the WSCTC. The story was sadly lacking in fully explaining the city's point of view.

This is a sandbag, David Brewster is the bagman.

The answer at the end will be that the city plan for Key Arena is defined, does not consume much of the revenue source, and enough revenue from that source would be there if the WSCTC ever got its plan together.

Brewster does mention that the hotel folks were unhappy that several million dollars from this source were dumped into the state's general fund, and that they do not want that to happen again. I think Senate Bill 6638 closed that loophole.

There are 30 million reasons the city is not ready to "finally let Key Arena go".

BTW, Ron Sims, mind your own backyard. You have been no help to me.
www.GoForItLarry.com

http://www.crosscut.com/blog/real-estate/17746/Could+a+convention+center+work+at+Seattle+Center/?comments=On&cID=8524#c8524

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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Washington State Senate Bill 6638

2008-09-15T20:40:00.001-07:00

Senate Bill 6638 went into effect on July 1, 2008. This bill set a framework around the funding sources, and the types of things the funds could be used for. This restricts the spending to agracultural, arts and heritage, and in counties with a population greater than one million - sports stadiums. The "lodging" tax that had an end date no longer has an end date. A great deal of the general scoping and limiting has been done.

What it looks like to me is that the Washington State Task Force is going to have to play match maker between descrete sources and revenues with more specific requests for those funds. At this point, I think Seattle Center's Key Arena has a better shot at slicing off a sliver of the Washington State Convention Center tax collected in Seattle, than does the University of Washington's attempt at the stadium tax collected in King County and currently paying off Safeco and of Qwest.

The Senate Bill keeps refering to "Arts and Heritage", maybe those that want Key Arena remodel to happen and another run at having a teamed the Sonics might want to have the NBA opening day "rally" at the real current home of the Sonics at the Seattle Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI).

That is where our Art and Heritage went, not Oklahoma City.

"It's my ballet" (did Mike Seely say that?)

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2007-08/Pdf/Bills/Session%20Law%202008/6638.SL.pdf

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone

Brian Robinson says "Good Morning"

2008-09-13T14:12:00.001-07:00

Brian Robinson of Save Our Sonics, at SonicsCentral.com , says, in not so many words, that the City of Seattle is talking but he does not see them doing, that he hears them say they are wanting but wonders if that will translate into action.
Robinson says, as has been reported here, and reported here, that the state task force (Local Financing Options for King County, Joint Task Force) is supposed to meet again this month. That task force is chaired by Ross Hunter. It is unlikely that Hunter, or any other politician running for office this November will want to be very public about this subject. The task force has a report out date of December 10th, I expect the month between the election and that report date to be the period of heavy lifting.

As Robinson says, the city needs to have its plan together before that legislature starts up. Robinson says that he has met with Dino Rossi.

The reality for the city, Hunter, Chris Gregoire, Rossi, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, and Brian Robinson, is that the first NBA season without the Sonics in Seattle is Tuesday, October 28th, one full week before election day. This is in time to be right in front of the majority citizens that vote by mail.

The first NBA preseason game is October 5th (I had to look it up). The sports columnists, reporters, journalists, bloggers, sports radio, will have nothing much to cover in the two weeks leading up to that because the Seattle Seahawks have a bye week the prior Sunday. That is two weeks without meaningful local NFL coverage. The Seattle Mariners season officially ends September 28th. The NBA, and the missing team story, will fill the hole in the sports section at some point during that period. What else are they going to write about?

I suggest that before the memory of the settlement between Clay Bennett and Greg Nickels, agreed to by the city council, becomes newspaper fodder at the end of September, beginning October, that the politicians get their shit together.

I am guessing that Brian Robinson will get asked, and he is likely to "point fingers", that is the leverage he has right now.

Oh, and a fine hello from Brian Robinson to Brad Keller (seen below).

Brad Keller, seen here preparing to stab Seattle in the back.
Get out of town, jackass!
http://sonicscentral.com/blog/?p=2086

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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Fan's Case Still Alive

2008-09-07T15:05:00.001-07:00

Lately, looking at SonicsCentral.com/blog reminds me of looking into a
pond at the Japanese Garden in Seattle on a cool Spring morning. You
look into the still water, is there anything going on in there?
Yesterday, Brian Robinson surfaced like one of those koi.
The fan's court case is still alive, and Mr Robinson has been advised
to be silent.

http://sonicscentral.com/blog/?p=2082#comment-578746

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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Crosscut Seattle - Our Convention Center has growing pains

2008-09-05T10:59:00.001-07:00

The Washington State Convention & Trade Center that currently hovers over Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle is expressing their desire to expand, off-site, to one of three places, one option being Seattle Center.

Remodeling Key Arena would have the same effect and draw an NBA team
back to the market. They are getting in line for the same tax source as Key Arena and the
rest of King County. What should be understood is that there is a recognized need for more
convention space in Seattle.
Building a state of the art arena and convention space would kill two birds with one stone, makes sense, that's why Frank Chopp will fight it.

http://www.crosscut.com/travel/17422/Our+Convention+Center+has+growing+pains/

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

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