Portland and Major League Baseball: A new financing plan for a major league baseball stadium surfaced Wednesday, offering a dramatic reduction in the amount of state lottery money required to build it according to a report in The Oregonian. The new plan is designed to capture income taxes generated by a team of well-paid professional players and to strengthen support for the proposed Portland stadium in the Legislature, which controls the purse strings.
"There were some people who didn't want to support it because they're concerned about how much lottery money it would tie up," said Craig Campbell, a lobbyist working on the proposal in the Oregonian report. "This really releases that pressure."

Under the original plan, the state would pay $150 million of the estimated $336 million in construction costs, using bonds paid off with state gambling revenues. That plan, contained in House Bill 2941, is on the docket for a floor vote and could come up by Friday.

The new proposal reduces the lottery needs by at least half, and possibly more, Campbell said. If HB2941 passes the House, it would go to the Senate and be revised to incorporate the new plan.

Instead of relying solely on lottery bonds, the state could pay part of its share with "lease bonds," which set aside a specific portion of the state's general fund -- in this case money from the ballplayers' income taxes -- and uses them to make payments on money borrowed to build the stadium.

"We've never done one like this," said state Treasurer Randall Edwards, whose staff helped devise the new proposal in the Oregonian report. But other states have, he said. "Theoretically, it gets you there."

The problem with using lottery bonds exclusively is that the state is coming close to tapping out that source of funding. If the Legislature supports Gov. John Kitzhaber's proposal to use lottery bonds for rural water and sewer projects, there won't be enough money left for a stadium, Edwards said.

The drawback to the lease bonds is that they are paid out of the state's general fund, where they compete with hundreds of other state programs, he said.

Campbell said the lease bonds make sense because they're paid with money that wouldn't be there without the new stadium. "Essentially what happens is, the baseball stadium ends up costing you nothing," he said in the Oregonian report.

The pending House vote is crucial, said Steve Kanter, president of the Oregon Baseball Group, which has been working for more than a year on a dream of snaring a major league team for Portland.

"If we lose on the House floor, we're finished," Kanter said in the Oregonian report. "If we get the House vote, it will send a very significant message to Major League Baseball. And I'm confident Major League Baseball will have something to say to us if it passes the House."

House Minority Leader Dan Gardner, D-Portland, said he thinks the bill has just enough support to get the necessary 31 votes to move from the House to the Senate. House Majority Leader Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village, said she wouldn't be surprised if it wins.

If the bill moves to the Senate, the expectation is it would go to the Joint Ways and Means Committee, where the final financing package would be stitched together.

Kanter and others who support the new stadium say Portland is in position to take advantage of a narrow window of opportunity in which several major league teams are facing financial troubles and could be looking to move.

"What we need," Kanter said in the Oregonian report, "is a firm, unshakable commitment from the state that it will make a $150 million investment." (source Oregonian)