Poll: Voters Call Foul Over Tax Dollars for New Stadium
Friday, January 5, 2007
A new poll shows Washington voters are crying foul over proposed plans to use tax dollars to build a new stadium for the Seattle Sonics. Over half of all voters asked said the team should have to pay fair market value to build the arena.
The new Elway Poll released Thursday shows 53-percent of voters in King County said they'd support a measure like the one passed in Seattle in November that requires teams to pay "fair value" for real estate, facilities or other goods. Adam Glickman is with the Service Employees International Union:
"The public is telling lawmakers that they are fed up with public tax subsidies for billionaire sports owners at the expense of investments in education, affordable health care, and transportation."
He adds a new stadium would cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and there's no payoff.
"Studies have shown conclusively that there's not a huge economic advantage to building sports arenas. It's not a good investment of public dollars."
Supporters of the arena say the team brings in jobs and tourism, and if it left, that would be an economic blow to the state.
The Elway Poll got responses from 401 registered voters in King County where the arena would be located.
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