Balls and Strikes - Baseball News

1. Portland and Major League Baseball: Hopes for building a major league baseball stadium in Portland soared Friday after Gov. John Kitzhaber blessed a revised plan to help pay for it with state income taxes. Kitzhaber's long-awaited approval touched off a fevered, last-ditch effort to push the proposal through the Legislature in its waning days. That and this report from The Oregonian.
"It's an enormous step to what we believe will be the ultimate outcome," said Steve Kanter, head of the Oregon Baseball Group, which is pushing for the stadium in The Oregonian report.

After weeks of intense lobbying, and assurances by the state revenue, treasury and justice departments that the funding plan can work, Kitzhaber said he was content with the proposal.

"It is something I can sign," Kitzhaber said about a freshly minted bill that would allow the state to use taxes on ballplayer salaries to pay part of the stadium construction tab in The Oregonian report. "The question now becomes whether the Legislature can get it to me."

And that's a big, open question. Republican leaders say they are lukewarm to Senate Bill 978, the proposal's latest incarnation, and time is running out.

"This isn't a done deal or anything close to that," said Sen. Ryan Deckert, D-Beaverton, sponsor of SB978 in The Oregonian report. "Having the governor on board is helpful, but there's still a lot of work to do."

The Legislature's strongest opponent, Sen. Lenn Hannon, R-Ashland, vowed to fight it to the end.

"It's an insult to the people of Oregon," Hannon said in The Oregonian report. "It's a sham. It's public theft at its worst."

Hannon, co-chairman of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, earlier had declared the proposal dead in his committee. But the original plan, which called for spending $150 million in lottery funds on the stadium, has changed dramatically.

The new plan seeks no lottery money, relying instead on a rarely used bonding method that uses new income taxes generated by a professional baseball team anticipated to occupy the new stadium.

The stadium wouldn't be built, and the state would spend no money, unless a team agrees to relocate to Portland and pay its share of the stadium's cost, estimated at $336 million with the state paying $150 million. The city of Portland also would have to kick in some of the cost and would have to find a suitable site.

In early May, the House narrowly passed the lottery version of the bill. It was then sent to the Ways and Means Committee, whereupon Hannon read its obituary.

Because the proposal has been written into a new bill it must go through the entire legislative process again, including votes in the House and Senate. However, because it doesn't make demands on the lottery or on the coming budget, it doesn't have to go through Hannon's committee.

Senate President Gene Derfler, R-Salem, said he isn't sure where to send the bill. Derfler said he doesn't like the idea of spending tax money on a baseball stadium, but "if it has the votes, I'm not going to block it."

Backers, who include some of Salem's top lobbyists, say they have more than enough votes in both chambers if the bill can make it out of committee.

"I'm pretty confident the train is on the track," said Kevin Campbell, one of a team of lobbyists who has been working on the proposal in The Oregonian report. The governor's public support was critical, Campbell said.

"We didn't feel we had a bill until the governor said he'd sign it," he said in The Oregonian report. "Why waste anybody's time unless it's something that's going to happen?"

Apart from Hannon, opposition to the bill has been muted by the changes. Rep. Charlie Ringo, D-Beaverton, the proposal's most tenacious opponent on the House side, declared himself "neutral" on the revised plan until he studies it further.

"It's a different bill," Ringo said.

"It's a lot easier bill to vote on," said Rep. Bill Witt, R-Cedar Mill, one of the original sponsors of the stadium funding plan in The Oregonian report. "My sense is the bill will move forward."

Even if the bill manages to negotiate the Legislature and is signed by Kitzhaber, it is only the first step in a complicated effort to woo a major league team to Portland, said Kanter, head of the Oregon Baseball Group. Kanter said league officials are watching the Legislature closely, and Portland would be a likely candidate for a team if the stadium proposal advances.

Earlier this month, Corey Busch, a representative from the national office of Major League Baseball, visited Portland, watched a Beaver's game at PGE Park and met with civic and community leaders about the possibility of moving a team here.

Since the proposal's first hearing months ago, Kanter has said it would come down to the session's final weeks. "I also predicted that we are going to prevail," Kanter said. "I'll stick to that." (source The Oregonian)

From the Sports Business News 06/25/01