Day 58 just ended moments ago as both the Senate and House chambers adjourned until tomorrow morning. Both Houses continue the slow march of passing bills and negotiating the final details of both the operating and capital budgets which will be made public tomorrow morning. As soon as we have details on the final budget proposals, we will try to get them posted to the State Relations website.
You’ve probably noticed a lot of media coverage about the city of Seattle’s request for $75 million in public financing to renovate Key Arena as part of a push from a new potential local ownership group for either the Supersonics or another NBA franchise. There’s been an awful lot of lobbying energy on this proposal and on Saturday, a couple hundred Sonic supporters descended on Olympia to rally for support of the request.
In the end, there wasn’t enough interest or time to do something this session. However, what did emerge yesterday was a letter to Seattle and King County leaders signed by the Governor, the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader that proposes to include language in the supplemental capital budget to establish a legislative task force to review King County-specific revenue options to fund a number of projects in King County. The projects mentioned in the letter include arts, low-income housing, education, youth sports, community and economic development, Puget Sound clean-up, Husky Stadium renovation, civic center projects and of course, the Key Arena proposal.
The task force is likely to be comprised of seven members, three from the House and three from the Senate, with one member appointed by the Governor. The final report with recommendations is due by December 1, 2008.
So, it seems that while funding for a Husky Stadium renovation is certainly not going to happen in 2008, it’s possible that this new King County Projects Financing Task Force might be willing to take up the Husky Stadium renovation issue as part of its work during the 2008 interim. So, time to take a knee and head into the locker room. The good news, though, is that it’s probably just halftime and not the end of the game.