OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -The Washington state Legislature will not vote on a measure to help finance a new $500 million arena for the Seattle SuperSonics this legislative session.
At a meeting Monday night involving Gov. Chris Gregoire and House and Senate leaders, lawmakers decided there wasn’t enough time to resolve the issue before the session adjourns on April 22. But they said the issue was not dead.
“We were running out of time,” said Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, and the arena’s strongest champion.
Sonics owner Clay Bennett, of Oklahoma City, has asked the Legislature for $300 million in public money for the facility, which could cost in excess of $500 million. The city of Renton, a possible site for the arena south of Seattle, has been asked to contribute money as well, but that amount hasn’t been determined yet.
The NBA team’s new ownership is seeking to replace Seattle’s KeyArena. If Bennett doesn’t get an agreement for a new arena in the Seattle area by Oct. 31, his $350 million purchase agreement allows him to move the team to Oklahoma, where he and his Sonics co-owners are prominent businessmen.
Gregoire said she would call Bennett, who also owns the WNBA’s Storm, to see if they could continue the discussions after lawmakers went home, opening the door to a potential special session later in the year.
Monday’s caucus came after Gregoire convened a Saturday meeting to gauge support among Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate.
Last Friday, Prentice’s committee, the Senate Ways and Means Committee, approved a $278 million package of local taxes to help build the new events center in Renton. The proposed facility would hold at least 15,000 fans and could accommodate conventions and other sports.
But the plan has run into stiff opposition in the state House, where discussions among House Democrats have been lukewarm, and where the powerful speaker, Rep. Frank Chopp of Seattle, had all but pronounced the plan dead.
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