The two Multnomah County commissioners who are trying to call a do-over on the county’s proposed $100 million or so in spending toward $600 million in Portland Trail Blazers renovations have revealed more details of their plan, and it’s looking less like pulling $35 million from the pot than taking it from a different pocket:
Commissioners Julia Brim-Edwards and Meghan Moyer, who have called on Chair Jessica Vega Pederson to rethink the county’s planned contribution to the arena’s renovation, proposed tapping an existing rental car tax to fund the county’s whole $88 million capital contribution. That would eliminate a controversial funding source, revenue from the county’s business income tax derived from the Trail Blazers’ sale, from the budget.
The Oregonian notes that keeping the $35 million in income taxes would mean the money would stay “in the county’s regular budget, where it could pay for county services.” It would mean instead taking $35 million in rental car taxes out of the county’s budget, but since that’s money that is earmarked for paying off the county’s 2019 expansion of the Oregon Convention Center, it’s not technically general fund money. Reading the tax law (start with section 11.300), it looks like the car rental tax is set to sunset once the convention center is paid off, so if there’s less rental car tax money available to pay off the bonds, this would effectively mean keeping the county’s 2.5% rental car tax surcharge in place for longer in order to give more of it to Blazers owner Tom Dundon.
It’s always baffling when elected officials spend time and energy debating which pool of public funds to hand over to a sports team owner, like someone trying to decide whether to pay for an expensive purchase with their debit or credit card. Money is money, and a government only has so much of it — raising (or in this case extending) taxes brings in more, sure, but that’s still taxes you could have increased and then used to pay for something else. We’re seeing the same thing right now in Tampa, where city councilmember Bill Carlson is proposing shifting around which taxes would be used to pay for which part of a Rays stadium deal: If taxpayers are covering the tab and not the team owner, all else is just bookkeeping details.
None of this may matter in the end for the Blazers arena plan, as the Portland city council still isn’t on board with its $120 million or so share of the costs. But all haggling matters, and when it appears that the most county commissioners plan to do is to debate which account to use to Venmo cash to Dundon, that’s disappointing, especially when Dundon’s lease says he can’t even threaten to move the team until 2030, if he could even find a place to move to. Hey, Multnomah County, you can be savvy negotiators too! All you have to do is use your leverage against the person on the other side of the negotiating table, instead of against a different part of your own public budget.
I keep saying it because it’s true… one-horse sports towns will NEVER feel like they have the leverage, even when they do. As toxic as the relationship has gotten between the city of Portland and Tom Dundon’s Blazers, there’s still an air of fait accompli in terms of this arena deal. The fear of losing its lone team will eventually override whatever disdain the local government(s) have toward that team, as it has every time since about the mid-90s.
Different context obviously, but the Kings were significantly closer to leaving Sacramento many years ago than the Blazers are today. I don’t see this situation devolving to that point.
In my mind, it all comes back to where would Dumdon move the team now, even if he could? I assume his arena in Raleigh is a bit too chilly for basketball. I’m hopeful that the meanderings of our local governments in trying to deal with this will cause him to at least indicate that he’s still alive.
The NBA essentially closed off Las Vegas and Seattle for expansion purposes — and it’s impossible to imagine that the reason Dundon is pulling all these cheapskate measures is so that he can cobble up enough change to eventually pay the relocation fees.
It’s Posturing 101. There’s no other city in (North) America that wants the Blazers more than Portland wants to keep them. Which is what makes the breathless wannabe Cassandra act put on by the Brian Windhorst’s of the world all the more bizarre.
PDX be strong! Don’t give into this pathetic cheapskate owner. The Kraken and soon to be Sonics owners paid for the Climate Pledge Arena, over 1 billion dollars!
I’m very surprised that Paul Allen’s sister would sell the team to this jackass!
She was the executor of an estate- not a traditional owner. Her fiduciary duty was to the estate (and the charities associated with it).
I am surprised there wasn’t a clause in the will that she would have had to sell the team to someone who would keep it local. Granted, he probably didn’t think it would take this many years to sell the team. If she had sold several years ago, Phil Knight would have bought them.
Taxes such as hotel or occupancy tax and car rental tax should be banned. If the citizens of that city or county cannot be bothered to pay for the convention center, arena, and/or stadium, then no one else should be forced to shoulder the load.