News
Sonics Bill
I was out too late last night at Schmader’s Gong Show to make this morning’s 8:30 Senate Ways and Means Committee meeting on the Sonics subsidy bill.
However, no gong for $400 million in public susibidies for the Sonics this morning. The bill made it out of committee.
Postman’s got some fat reporting on it.
Initially, it looked like Seattle Sen. Jeanne-Kohl Welles (D-36) was going to be the swing vote on it, putting her in the awkward situation of bucking big labor (the Northwest Labor Council supports the bill) or bucking Seattle—74% voted against subsidizing the Sonics last November. (Although, another labor group, the hard ball SEIU Local 775 is against the bill too.)
However, as Postman reports, Bellingham Senator, Republican Dale Brandland (D-42) eventually provided the vote to move the bill out of committee.
One of my favorite legislators, Republican-turned-Democrat, Sen. Rodney Tom (D-48, Medina) took the lead against moving it out of commitee.
I did get an interview with him today. Here’s what he told me.
I don’t think we should be subsidizing professional sports when we can’t pay our teachers. People don’t understand. We’re not buying the stadium. The ownership group gets the naming rights and seating licensing. All we are doing is subsidizing player payroll. Paying Ray Allen $16 million a year when we can’t eve pay a teacher $31,000.
… and another thing…
Key arena was just renovated 10 years ago. [Tom is right. And we’re still paying that off and more.] I don’t see us renovating schools every 10 years. There are schools in Seattle where you can’t even drink the water.
Sen. Tom said he doesn’t think the bill will pass the full Senate because everyone knows it’s not going to pass the House. (Speaker Chopp says he won’t give the bill the time of day.)
Tom says that passing the bill would “take away from all the good things we’ve done this session on education, transportation, and health care.” (The Dems have done some good things there: funding health care for low-icome children and getting money into school construction and education grants. Not so sure about the transpo piece.)
Tom says if they pass the bill the GOP will slam them, saying: “You’re funding stadiums not schools.”
I’m not sure the GOP, with its share of sports fans in the base, would go there, but perhaps Tom is right. After all, he used to be an R.
Tom also trashed Sonics owner Clay Bennett—saying “this isn’t who King County shoud be joining hips with.” Tom was referring to Bennett’s wife’s family, the Gaylords, a prominent Repbulican family, which owns the ultra conservative Daily Oklahoman. I’ve been talking to the Oklahoman Democrats about the Gaylords. More on that later.
Sen. Tom may be onto something. As I reported earlier this year, the new Sonics ownership has worked to deny rights for gays and lesbians (hello Storm.)
Comments (7)
grrrr
Posted by monkey | April 13, 2007 11:49 AMCan anybody else agree that Mr. Feit is a smarmy reporter who words things to enforce his own opinion, certainly his right, but very very manipulative in subtle ways? And I'm not being petty.
i.e. The Gong Show was not Schmader's. It was stated clearly just about everyday for the past 2 weeks otherwise. The idea may have been his, he may have hosted it, but it was listed as The Stranger's Gong Show. There are a number of problems/hypocracies/sadness/intentions/repercussions here with the perceptions of Mr. Feit. I will point them out and how this effects your reading of his "news" if you do so inquire. Please don't sound like Enos of Hazard in asking.
Posted by Sonic, starring as Boss Hog | April 13, 2007 12:01 PMSo, just so we're clear: Josh was too busy partying last night to actually get up this morning and do his job, but fortunately a real reporter from an actual newspaper was there, so he can just link to that? Man, I wish everywhere I worked in my career had been as loose about the duties of my position.
That said, Sonic in #2 seems to be making an awful lot out of very little (and rather ungrammatically, at that). When people say they are "on Leno," nobody corrects them to point out the Tonight Show actually belongs to NBC.
Posted by Joe | April 13, 2007 1:26 PMYou could have talked to me, you know.
Eddie Gaylord was a piece of work. In 1990, he ran an editorial on the front of the Oklahoman right before a looming statewide teachers' strike blasting an education bill before the Legislature with some nasty vitriol about liberals and unions.
At the time, Oklahoma's average teacher pay was 49th, and Mississippi was about to pass them.
Since the CJR branded them "worst newspaper in America," they've really improved their coverage considerably and put a lot of money into their website. They're not even the worst newspaper in Oklahoma. That honor goes to the Tulsa World, which is written to about a fourth-grade level, is printed on paper not much larger than a high school newspaper, charges 75 cents to read it, and until last year wouldn't even let you read an article on their website without paying $50/year. This for the 45th largest city in the United States.
Say what you will about the Gaylords and their money-grubbing political-machinating right-of-John-Birch ways, but this current generation of ownership and their editorial staff finally figured out how to produce a readable newspaper.
Posted by dw | April 13, 2007 3:29 PMNorthwest Labor Council? Would that be the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council? If so, I can't see where their support for the bill would be all that influencial, seeing as they represent Whatcom & Skagit County AFL-CIO affiliates, none of which are going to get much work out of a construction project in King County.
And so far as I'm aware, the KCLC hasn't taken an official position on the Sonics Stadium. Sure, it would mean lots of union construction jobs, but just like SafeCo & QWest, once the construction is completed, most, if not all of the maintenance & concessions contracts would no doubt end up going to non-union employers. So it becomes a sort of Phyrric victory, not to mention the fact that many voters in the county (a lot of whom are union members) clearly are against public financing.
Posted by COMTE | April 13, 2007 4:02 PMStill dead, Sonics ripoff of taxpayers - Kurt Vonnegut to speak on their behalf when he rises from his grave ... film at 11.
Posted by Will in Seattle | April 13, 2007 4:04 PM#3 Thank you for the question in the form of a roundabout statement.
"Sonic in #2 seems to be making..."
"and rather ungrammatically"
Have you heard of the Suzuki method to learning music?
http://www.suzukimusicacademy.com/Suzuki-methodLinksIndex.html
"nobody corrects them..."
I believe there is a phrase - never say never.
Would you like me to answer you on how "an awful lot out of very little" is a sad reading?
Posted by Sonic | April 13, 2007 9:26 PMComments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).