Compromise measure secures Mariners, disappoints Seattle tourism industry

After weeks of debate and hours of public comment, a divided King County Council (5-4) approved a compromise measure on how to spend future hotel/motel tax dollars Monday that is expected to secure a long-term lease extension with the Mariners and inject hundreds of millions into affordable housing.

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The Mariners originally wanted $185 million from lodging tax money (from hotel taxes) for the fixes to Safeco Field if they were going to sign a 25-year lease extension.

In a statement after the vote, the Mariners appeared ready to move forward with the 25-year lease extension:

We want to thank members of the County Council who voted to support affordable housing and to help protect an important public asset – Safeco Field.

The small share of future revenues from the hotel/motel tax will go directly to the Public Facilities District and can only be used for basic ballpark infrastructure needs, which a third party has estimated will amount to $385 million. Even with the lodging tax revenues of roughly $5.5 million per year, as tenants, the Mariners are obligated to pay 83 percent of the costs of improving, maintaining and operating the ballpark over the next 25 years, some $680 million.

We can now move forward with finalizing a lease agreement with the PFD that ensures Safeco Field continues to be a first-class ballpark, community asset and economic engine for our region for generations to come.

Lodging taxes

Under state law, 37 percent of the lodging tax must be used for affordable housing, another 37 percent for arts and culture, and the remaining 25 percent can be used for tourism promotion — which includes money for Safeco maintenance — or affordable housing.

Under the original proposal, the Mariners were going to get about a third of that 25 percent chunk, but advocates argued affordable housing is a more pressing issue and lobbied hard for a bigger piece.

They won.

The compromise passed by the full council on Monday ensures a minimum of half of the lodging tax money will go towards affordable housing, with the Mariners getting $135 million, which is $50 million less than their original request.

In order to devote more of the lodging tax money for affordable housing and only minimally reduce the Safeco money, the council gutted funding of tourism groups, such as Visit Seattle, that were expecting from the pot.

“It will be disheartening to the 75,000 employees who make their living in the travel and tourism industry in King county to learn that the promised re-investment of tourism marketing funds for the future health of the fourth largest industry in the county — just evaporated,” Tom Norwalk, Visit Seattle President, said after the final vote.

“What some members on the council have failed to recognize is that tourism is fragile and ultra-competitive. And unless we are competing, protecting and growing our market share –- other destinations will be –- at our expense,” Norwalk said. “It is a sad day for King County. This process has pitted friends against friends. Housing, tourism and baseball interests fighting for a share of a tax stream made available by hotels and motels. But tomorrow, as usual, our resilient industry will continue to find ways to compete and will look for other long-term sources to provide the tourism marketing funds our employees so richly deserve, for their futures.”

County Executive Dow Constantine said last week he was pushing to get some of those tourism dollars restored before Monday’s final vote.

“In this region, we’re just kind of resting on our laurels in terms of our attractiveness for visitors,” Constantine said. “Many other places, most other places in the country work much harder to bring people to their regions, including business visitors, including folks who are vacationing and including industries that visit like film … and we need to focus on doing that work if we’re going to keep this remarkable tourist economy going.”

But in the end, it didn’t happen. Despite several offered amendments that would have restored at least some of the tourism funding, none passed.

In a statement after the vote, Constantine said, “The legislation approved today balances competing needs, with a minimum of half for affordable housing, more than a third for countywide access to arts and heritage, and reinvestment in the attractions that bring visitors and their tourist dollars to King County, including our publicly-owned ballpark. I commit to working with the King County Council on future tourism investments.”

The four councilmembers voting against the compromise and pushing for additional tourism dollars included Jeanne Kohl-Wells, Dave Upthegrove, Larry Gossett, and Rod Dembowski.

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