Correcting Seattle Times misconceptions regarding the proposed arena

Courtesy of: THE READER
From the Office of Mayor Mike McGinn

City Budget Director Beth Goldberg felt inclined to correct some misconceptions about Chris Hansen’s proposed arena, following some statements made by members of the Seattle Times Editorial Board.

This proposal will not take funding away from any existing service the City provides. The sources of revenue that guarantee that the costs of the bonds are covered by arena-generated revenues and the investor are:

• A guaranteed based rent paid to the City and the County by the investor
• New incremental tax revenue generated by the arena project that would not be available to either the City or the County were it not for the arena being built
• If the revenues from the two previous sources are not enough to cover the cost of repaying the bonds, the investor is obligated to pay an additional rent payment to make up the difference.

For more, see Beth Goldberg’s blog post here.

Photo credit: Dave Nakayama via Flickr