Saturday, January 16, 2010

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

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.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

It lives

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

Sunday, January 10, 2010

60 Days of Low Expectations

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!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

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

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

Monday, October 12, 2009

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

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.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Friday, October 9, 2009

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Sonicsgate Trailer

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

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

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

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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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Donaldson is no help

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.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

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

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

Saturday, July 4, 2009

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

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

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Thanks for making a Nightmare come true Greg Nickels

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

Thursday, June 18, 2009

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

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

Saturday, June 6, 2009

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

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

Sunday, May 31, 2009

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

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




Wednesday, May 27, 2009

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

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

Saturday, May 23, 2009

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

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

Monday, May 11, 2009

SeattlePI.com: McGinn: Viaduct tunnel 'endangers' Seattle's future

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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http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles: Will push for stadium bill in special session

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
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