According to this Seattle P-I story, we can have a new Key Arena after all, without any new taxes or controversy, and David Stern will then give us another NBA team. Great!
“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. 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. 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.”
Instead of asking for lodging taxes like the ones that support the football and baseball stadiums (those are in the process of being spoken for by a dozen or so other folks), the plan would be to take a percent of the city’s 7 percent tax on all hotel bills. Those funds currently go to convention center operations.
The only reason this solution wouldn’t be a win-win for everyone is if it made it more difficult for the convention center to expand, especially after last year’s use of convention center funds.
UPDATE: Similar concerns expressed in Crosscut.
RELATED: I can’t believe they actually went with the headline “Thunder Crackles in OKC.” Oy.
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