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EmailIn all the reporting about the Sonics decision, we tend to overlook the intense clamoring over a taxing source, the so-called "stadium taxes," that bedevils the politics. A lot of groups want to lay claim to those taxes, which are supposed to go away after the Kingdome, Safeco Field, and Qwest Field are paid off, but are really catnip to politicians for their pet causes. The taxes have two attractions: they are not really an "increase" if you just extend their life, and they fall mostly on visitors, who don't vote locally.
One of the main supplicants is the arts. Thereby hangs an interesting story.
This region is very miserly when it comes to public funding of the arts, lagging far behind cities such as San Francisco and Denver. But King County, not wanting to spend money itself, has worked a good deal in tapping state funds, the very same stadium taxes. As those funds come up for grabs across the next decade, 4Culture, the King County organization that funds local arts and heritage groups, has tried to hold its prime place in line. In some sessions of the Legislature, 4Culture joined lobbying forces with the Sonics; last session it went solo. It gets good pats on the head and noble promises, and in the last session it got its long-term funding proposal approved, but with a sinister twist imposed by House Speaker Frank Chopp. The funding sunsets in 2009. Gee. thanks!
Chopp, an inveterate dealmaker, wants to line up all the supplicants for a grand pie-cutting in the 2009 session. Among those invited to the party: Husky stadium renovations (now joined by hungry WSU Cougars), low-income housing (a Chopp priority), Seattle Center and KeyArena, repairs or the Safeco Field roof, youth sports, Puget Sound clean-up, and the arts. The list is getting rather long, and the tourist industry, who pays the taxes, is starting to rebel at recipients that have little to do with filling hotel rooms and restaurants.
Meanwhile, Seattle arts groups are sliding toward financial problems, though they rarely mention them in public. Our major theaters are struggling with past debts or now running deficits. Some majors like the Seattle Art Museum or thriving; others, like the Symphony, have structural deficits of about $2 million a year to wrestle with. We built expensive new facilities during the booming 1990s, hoping that new sources would cover the higher costs and longer seasons. But corporate headquarters are moving away or being bought up, and the new economy is not as directed toward giving to the arts as the old wealth. both ArtsFund and PONCHO fell short of their fundraising goals in the past year, according to
David Brewster is Editor-in-Chief at Crosscut, and chair of the board of Crosscut Public Media. You can e-mail him at david.brewster@crosscut.com.
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Comments:
Posted Sun, Jul 6, 7:01 a.m. Inappropriate
Serious inequities: A question? I was under the impression that the so called Hotel Motel tax intended only to tax visitors who come to watch pro sports also includes a tax on restaurants and rental vehicles county wide? If correct, doesn't that mean if you rent a truck to take your junk to the dump or if you don't own a car and want to rent one for a day to go to the beach you pay the tax? Or, doesn't it mean that if a old lady on a pension in Enumclaw buys a bowl of soup at her local restaurant she would have been supporting professional sports franchises or arts venues she sees no value in? Neither are visitors.
When Ray Allen, a fine fellow by all accounts and a great basketball player, last played for the Sonics he was paid $14,000 per game. This tax was an indirect subsidy to his wages. Seems like there were some serious inequities.
Posted Sun, Jul 6, 10:07 a.m. Inappropriate
These taxes have been in play for the last four years, ever since the Howard Schultz-led Sonics have sought an extension of these taxes as the existing stadiums are paid off. With the Sonics leaving town, it will be interesting to see if "their" share will be released for other uses or held in reserve against the day when a new NBA team might be found for Seattle. A lot of the old battles will be fought, particularly by restaurant owners who want to see their tax expire, as promised.
Posted Mon, Jul 7, 2:31 p.m. Inappropriate
The Pigs at the Trough Tax: I like my pork organic and free-range rather than warehouse produced in government pig pens. Here's a review of each of the potential trough residents named in David's article:
Husky stadium renovation. The UW refused to allow Paul Allen to upgrade Husky stadium so it could be used for NFL football. Instead we built an entirely new stadium, Qwest Field, at the cost of hundreds of millions of taxpayer and Paul Allen dollars. That's the U.W.'s fault. If they want a better stadium, they should fund the upgrades out of gate receipts. A $20.00 surcharge on each Husky ticket for 20 years should generate about $168M. If that is too high a price, then the UW is free to rent Qwest stadium for Husky football and sell off the stadium to fund more undergraduate education slots. That's the kind of decision I'd expect from a higher-education institution: invest in the core mission and outsource to competent providers.
Low-income housing. The lack of low-income housing is a problem induced by zoning and the GMA. It needs to be fixed at the policy and market level. And don't get me going on how outrageously expensive and bloated the construction of low-income housing by government would be. Better to provide significant incentives for builders to build low-income housing. The right place to get those monies is from the REET1 and REET2 funds, which are now pork barrels for environmental land purchases that drive up the price of housing for the poor. Using REET as a funding source would create an affordable housing equilibrium: the higher housing prices go, the more money generated for developer affordable housing subsidies.
Seattle Center. This is a local problem. Business and the City should get together and solve it. Forget the State. Hint1: The Gate Foundation headquarters are nearby. Hint2: Amazon is moving into South Lake Union.
KeyArena. This is the problem of future owners of some future NBA franchise. Until that is a certainty, forget it. If we get the promise of an NBA franchise, and the promise of a $150M matching subsidy from future owners and a $75M matching subsidy from the City of Seattle, (more or less the deal that was left at the table before) then, and only then, does the State kicking in $75M make begrudging sense. Otherwise KeyArena is fine as is. Besides, a simple $20 surcharge in perpetuity on all future neo-Sonics tickets would do the trick.
Repairs of the Safeco Field Roof. Obviously, Mariner's tickets should contain a stadium maintenance charge that will pay for this. Let the Stadium Authority ask for what, five dollars a ticket? Forget the State tax.
Youth Sports. This should come out of our Parks levies and Schools levies. Forget the tax.
Puget Sound Clean-up. Cleaning up the Sound downstream is a fool's errand. Everything I read suggests that cleaning up Puget Sound really means removing pollution at the source, which means mostly controlling urban and suburban run-off. Municipalities should be taxing their businesses and citizens for the downstream pollution that urban and suburban runoff generate. A general tax to solve this problem is just spitting in the Sound. Better to tax within municipalities based on the volume of pollution generated. Then the right regulations will get passed to eliminate the pollution (and the taxes) at the source.
The Arts. As a matter of policy, lets fund tje arts privately and philanthropically. The sooner government gets out of Arts funding, the better. The Arts will then have to offer products that cover their costs and turn a profit. Apparently, the Tourist industry benefits significantly from the Arts. The members of that industry are free to band together and fund the Arts as they see fit. Government is not stopping them.