Gregoire's Digging Herself One Hole While Opposing Another

Governor Gregoire is digging herself a hole, over the hole she doesn't want to see being dug, and the hole she does want to see being dug.

Confused?

I think a lot of people are.

On the one hand she's taken a seemingly inflexible position on the replacement options for the Alaskan Way Viaduct, in the name of "fiscal responsibility". The hole she won't abide by is the cut and cover tunnel option the City of Seattle prefers that would open up the waterfront by removing the artificial barrier between the city and the water.

Gregoire says that's just not affordable.

On the other hand she supports the building of a new $500 million sports arena for the Sonics and Storm basketball teams in Renton, despite the fact $300 million or more will come from public financing. Ground breaking on that project is the hole she does support.

She says she's a "huge fan" of the Seattle Storm and calls the facility "a whole lot more" than just a sports arena.

That's nice, but it is also arrogant.

Let me turn this around with a counter argument.

I'm a "huge fan" of a beautified vision of Seattle, one that doesn't have a monstrous concrete wall of a highway running through the city, cutting it off from a natural waterfront cities everywhere would kill to have. The replacement of the current Viaduct is "a whole lot more" than a matter of replacing one road with another of equivalent or larger size, it is a matter of reclaiming a waterfront lifestyle that has been robbed of Seattle by the mistakes made 50 years ago that resulted in the creation of this double decker eye-sore. This is a transformative moment that goes far beyond the mere desire to run trucks and vehicles through the city, and a reasonable solution like a tunnel has been dismissed out of hand by people who have no concept of the price such a moment is worth.

What is fiscally irresponsible is spending tax payer money on yet another sports facility for an ownership group that we all suspect would be just as happy to take the teams to Oklahoma. In a fiscally responsible world, Key Arena should remain good enough for basketball games. In a fiscally responsible world, the millionaire and billionaire basketball benefactors would be able to raise all the money necessary in private donations to pay for the extravagance of a shiny new arena. Extending sports subsidy taxes, as is being suggested, in perpetuity is not a solution. After this deal some other sports team owner will want yet another like it, and the cycle will never end.

Then there is this:

Gregoire said repeatedly, and incorrectly, that the package affects only area residents. "No state dollars are going to be used," she said. "State taxpayers are not interested in paying for a sports stadium."

Actually, the package would continue the county's withholding of a 0.17 percent sales tax that ordinarily would flow to Olympia for schools and other general-government purposes. Over the time the Sonics' arena bonds would be paid off, from — to ..., the tax would total $119 million, meaning taxpayers statewide would be financing a big part of the arena.

The governor's staff said later that she had misspoken.

Indeed, on both these matters Gregoire has misspoken, and has truly dug herself a hole, and at the detriment of education funding no less. The question is how much you-know-what is going to pile up on top of her before she understands that, and how is she going to extricate herself from the excrement?

One thing is sure: if she's winning any points with anyone, she's doing so at the cost of the support of a lot of people.