http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14281098p-15089333c.html
Campaign for arena tax begins
By Terri Hardy -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, July 23, 2006
Sacramento's arena pact took months of excruciating on-again, off-again, and then on-again negotiations. Finally, the ultra-tense, 11th-hour deal emerged under arduous deadline pressure and enormous public scrutiny.
Now comes the hard part: turning plans into reality.
A scant 24 hours after the deal was sealed, the campaign officially kicked off Friday to persuade Sacramento County voters to approve a 15-year, quarter-cent sales tax to fund the bulk of the arena price tag and a host of other community amenities. Politicians, business leaders and Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof all were stumping to tout the benefits of a state-of-the-art sports and entertainment complex.
"The hard work is just beginning," said County Supervisor Roger Dickinson at the media event staged at the Union Pacific railyard, envisioned as the site for the proposed facility. "We've got to spread the message from the Placer County line to the Delta that this is an investment that makes sense."
The job ahead will be a difficult one. First, four of the five Sacramento County Board of Supervisors must vote affirmatively on Aug. 2 to place the sales tax increase question on the November ballot.
Then, arena campaigners need to win over the public, which polls show is largely leery of taxpayer funding of an arena. The current sales tax rate in Sacramento County is 7 3/4 percent.
The tax would generate at least $1.2 billion over 15 years. That money would go toward paying the bulk of the arena's price tag, estimated at between $470 million and $542 million. Also, a minimum of $594 million would go to the county and its cities for unspecified local projects.
The Maloofs would pay off an existing loan from the city of nearly $71 million in a lump sum. Then, they would pay $4 million annually in rent for 30 years and put $20 million in a capital repair reserve fund. A public joint powers authority would own the building, and the Maloofs would pay to maintain it. All proceeds from all events, parking and concessions would go to the Maloofs.
Advocates have called the tax "the quality of life measure." Without releasing calculations behind his estimate, Dickinson said the cost to the average family would be minimal, "less than $1 a week."
As arena supporters move forward with their campaign, the last-minute momentum of the deal surprised critics, sending them scrambling to mobilize.
Sacramento Assemblyman Dave Jones, a Democrat,"is cutting his vacation short to announce his opposition to a taxpayer-funded arena," said Chris Shultz, Jones' chief of staff. Jones plans to hold a news conference Monday.
Jones has been the most vocal and well-known critic of past efforts to build a publicly funded arena. In 2004, a group of activists that helped elect Jones put together an organization called People United for a Better Sacramento.
That group, with Jones at the helm, led the effort to oppose a previously proposed downtown publicly funded arena. Largely dormant since then, People United was recently resurrected.
In an unusual political alliance, the group has joined forces recently with the Sacramento County Taxpayers League. Joe Sullivan, the league's executive director, said his organization believes that the effort to market the sales tax increase as a general tax requiring only a majority of the vote is illegal. Sullivan said the tax is a specific one that by law needs a two-thirds approval by voters.
Last week, People United members sent out hundreds of mailers asking organizations to support their fight, said spokesman Dave Tamayo. Gathering a large volunteer base is the only way, Tamayo said, to counter the "big-money campaign" expected to be launched by arena supporters.
"People, volunteers, that's really going to be our best chance of success," Tamayo said. "We're going to be working to use that energy as we develop some momentum."
Political consultant Jeff Raimundo, who was involved in a previous, unsuccessful effort by Natomas landowners to privately fund an arena, speculates that arena supporters are likely to run a "multimillion dollar" campaign.
"It's going to be a hard sell," Raimundo said. "Voters are skeptical about tax increases, and it's important to persuade them that this is a good business deal."
Money for the campaign needs to come from the Maloofs, Raimundo said, a sign to voters that they are serious participants and partners in the community.
"Past problems for the Maloofs have come in part because voters see them as absentee owners … as Las Vegas casino owners," Raimundo said. "Their connection to the community has to be highlighted in this campaign."
At Friday's news conference, Joe Maloof got his first taste of the bare-knuckle campaign ahead.
He fielded questions about whether he and his brother, Gavin, are "carpetbaggers." (No, they've maintained residences here for eight years, he said.)
And he downplayed the idea of a big-bucks campaign. "You don't have to spend a lot of money," Maloof said. "You have to sit down and try to educate people."
Maloof said he wants to mobilize the Kings' and Monarchs' fan base for the campaign, an idea Raimundo lauded. The consultant said that, in his view, those fans, or other members of the community -- not the Maloofs -- should appear in any ads.
One mechanism already at work for the Maloofs is KHTK (1140 AM). The radio station, "The Home of the Kings" has 150,000 listeners and will advocate for a new arena, said Steve Cottingim, vice president of CBS Radio's Sacramento stations, including KHTK.
Two of the station's hosts -- Grant Napaer and Jim Kozimor -- are announcers for the Kings and are on the team's payroll.
"We're a sports radio station and it's in our best interest, and the interest of the city, to have the NBA here -- to have the Kings," Cottingham said.
Of the members of the "arena team" that brokered the deal, the task of selling the sales tax increase to the public has fallen to Warren Smith, executive vice president of the Sacramento River Cats. Smith, who opened Friday's news conference, isn't used to being in the public eye: "I'm new at this," he said as he fumbled with a microphone.
Smith, who helped build Raley Field with the assistance of public money, is well-respected in the business community. The arena team will soon decide if it will hire a consulting firm, he said.
Smith already has recruited help, including Matt Mahood, president of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce; Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership; and Steve Hammond, president of the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The strategy, Smith said, will be modeled on a successful campaign in 2004 that persuaded county voters to extend an existing half-cent sales tax for transportation projects. Mahood and Raimundo ran the "Measure A" campaign.
Unlike Measure A, in which projects were clearly specified, down to the last planned interchange, the community benefits to be funded by the new proposed tax won't be detailed. Voters would be asked to approve a quarter-cent sales tax, and then, in a nonbinding question, would be asked if they approve funding of an arena and other amenities. The county's legal counsel believes that ballot language should be as general as possible.
That's a conundrum, Raimundo said, because voters want to know what they're getting for the money.
"The less specific they are, the more difficult the sales job will be," he said.
Mahood knows there's a lot of work ahead. If and when he gets the endorsement of his board this week, he will begin to form a campaign steering committee representing all sectors of the community.
"Once we get opinion leaders on the board, then we'll start going after various groups for support," Mahood said.
Money is a key factor, Mahood said. In the Measure A effort, there were no fundraising events. "We dialed for dollars," Mahood said.
Arena advocates already are tossing around some key talking points. They stress that the facility would be more than an arena, that it would host several other events, from tractor pulls to concerts. They emphasize the arena's potentially beneficial role in revitalizing the railyard, downtown and the region. And they point to a "yes" vote as an endorsement of Sacramento's image as a big city, with a prominent skyline as well as at least $594 million for community goodies.
Smith has also worked to secure support in the county's suburban cities, such as Folsom, Galt, Rancho Cordova, Isleton and Elk Grove. Although some representatives from those cities are dubious, others are avid supporters of the arena plan.
Linda Budge, a Rancho Cordova city councilwoman and Kings season ticket holder, said she'll be talking to people about the arena plan as she campaigns for re-election. Rancho Cordova is the only one of the cities to pass a resolution calling on county supervisors to put the arena tax increase on the ballot.
Tamayo, from People United, said he's not sure where supervisors stand on the issue. But arena supporters are contacting the supervisors, and pressure on the board is building.
"Unless it's on the ballot, we won't have an arena discussion," Mahood said. "And that would be a huge opportunity lost."
TAXING MATTERS
If voters agree to the quarter-cent sales tax to fund the arena and other community amenities, Sacramento County will have a sales tax rate of 8 percent. Only seven of the 58 counties in California have a sales tax of 8 percent or higher (certain cities within some counties have a higher rate than the county rate):
County: Alameda Sales tax: 8.75%
County: San Francisco Sales tax: 8.50%
County: Contra Costa Sales tax: 8.25%
County: Los Angeles Sales tax: 8.25%
County: San Mateo Sales tax: 8.25%
County: Santa Clara Sales tax: 8.25%
County: Santa Cruz Sales tax: 8.00% Note: The sales tax in El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba counties is 7.25%.
Source: California State Board of Equalization
About the writer: The Bee's Terri Hardy can be reached at (916) 321-1073 or thardy@sacbee.com.
Campaign for arena tax begins
By Terri Hardy -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, July 23, 2006
Sacramento's arena pact took months of excruciating on-again, off-again, and then on-again negotiations. Finally, the ultra-tense, 11th-hour deal emerged under arduous deadline pressure and enormous public scrutiny.
Now comes the hard part: turning plans into reality.
A scant 24 hours after the deal was sealed, the campaign officially kicked off Friday to persuade Sacramento County voters to approve a 15-year, quarter-cent sales tax to fund the bulk of the arena price tag and a host of other community amenities. Politicians, business leaders and Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof all were stumping to tout the benefits of a state-of-the-art sports and entertainment complex.
"The hard work is just beginning," said County Supervisor Roger Dickinson at the media event staged at the Union Pacific railyard, envisioned as the site for the proposed facility. "We've got to spread the message from the Placer County line to the Delta that this is an investment that makes sense."
The job ahead will be a difficult one. First, four of the five Sacramento County Board of Supervisors must vote affirmatively on Aug. 2 to place the sales tax increase question on the November ballot.
Then, arena campaigners need to win over the public, which polls show is largely leery of taxpayer funding of an arena. The current sales tax rate in Sacramento County is 7 3/4 percent.
The tax would generate at least $1.2 billion over 15 years. That money would go toward paying the bulk of the arena's price tag, estimated at between $470 million and $542 million. Also, a minimum of $594 million would go to the county and its cities for unspecified local projects.
The Maloofs would pay off an existing loan from the city of nearly $71 million in a lump sum. Then, they would pay $4 million annually in rent for 30 years and put $20 million in a capital repair reserve fund. A public joint powers authority would own the building, and the Maloofs would pay to maintain it. All proceeds from all events, parking and concessions would go to the Maloofs.
Advocates have called the tax "the quality of life measure." Without releasing calculations behind his estimate, Dickinson said the cost to the average family would be minimal, "less than $1 a week."
As arena supporters move forward with their campaign, the last-minute momentum of the deal surprised critics, sending them scrambling to mobilize.
Sacramento Assemblyman Dave Jones, a Democrat,"is cutting his vacation short to announce his opposition to a taxpayer-funded arena," said Chris Shultz, Jones' chief of staff. Jones plans to hold a news conference Monday.
Jones has been the most vocal and well-known critic of past efforts to build a publicly funded arena. In 2004, a group of activists that helped elect Jones put together an organization called People United for a Better Sacramento.
That group, with Jones at the helm, led the effort to oppose a previously proposed downtown publicly funded arena. Largely dormant since then, People United was recently resurrected.
In an unusual political alliance, the group has joined forces recently with the Sacramento County Taxpayers League. Joe Sullivan, the league's executive director, said his organization believes that the effort to market the sales tax increase as a general tax requiring only a majority of the vote is illegal. Sullivan said the tax is a specific one that by law needs a two-thirds approval by voters.
Last week, People United members sent out hundreds of mailers asking organizations to support their fight, said spokesman Dave Tamayo. Gathering a large volunteer base is the only way, Tamayo said, to counter the "big-money campaign" expected to be launched by arena supporters.
"People, volunteers, that's really going to be our best chance of success," Tamayo said. "We're going to be working to use that energy as we develop some momentum."
Political consultant Jeff Raimundo, who was involved in a previous, unsuccessful effort by Natomas landowners to privately fund an arena, speculates that arena supporters are likely to run a "multimillion dollar" campaign.
"It's going to be a hard sell," Raimundo said. "Voters are skeptical about tax increases, and it's important to persuade them that this is a good business deal."
Money for the campaign needs to come from the Maloofs, Raimundo said, a sign to voters that they are serious participants and partners in the community.
"Past problems for the Maloofs have come in part because voters see them as absentee owners … as Las Vegas casino owners," Raimundo said. "Their connection to the community has to be highlighted in this campaign."
At Friday's news conference, Joe Maloof got his first taste of the bare-knuckle campaign ahead.
He fielded questions about whether he and his brother, Gavin, are "carpetbaggers." (No, they've maintained residences here for eight years, he said.)
And he downplayed the idea of a big-bucks campaign. "You don't have to spend a lot of money," Maloof said. "You have to sit down and try to educate people."
Maloof said he wants to mobilize the Kings' and Monarchs' fan base for the campaign, an idea Raimundo lauded. The consultant said that, in his view, those fans, or other members of the community -- not the Maloofs -- should appear in any ads.
One mechanism already at work for the Maloofs is KHTK (1140 AM). The radio station, "The Home of the Kings" has 150,000 listeners and will advocate for a new arena, said Steve Cottingim, vice president of CBS Radio's Sacramento stations, including KHTK.
Two of the station's hosts -- Grant Napaer and Jim Kozimor -- are announcers for the Kings and are on the team's payroll.
"We're a sports radio station and it's in our best interest, and the interest of the city, to have the NBA here -- to have the Kings," Cottingham said.
Of the members of the "arena team" that brokered the deal, the task of selling the sales tax increase to the public has fallen to Warren Smith, executive vice president of the Sacramento River Cats. Smith, who opened Friday's news conference, isn't used to being in the public eye: "I'm new at this," he said as he fumbled with a microphone.
Smith, who helped build Raley Field with the assistance of public money, is well-respected in the business community. The arena team will soon decide if it will hire a consulting firm, he said.
Smith already has recruited help, including Matt Mahood, president of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce; Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership; and Steve Hammond, president of the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The strategy, Smith said, will be modeled on a successful campaign in 2004 that persuaded county voters to extend an existing half-cent sales tax for transportation projects. Mahood and Raimundo ran the "Measure A" campaign.
Unlike Measure A, in which projects were clearly specified, down to the last planned interchange, the community benefits to be funded by the new proposed tax won't be detailed. Voters would be asked to approve a quarter-cent sales tax, and then, in a nonbinding question, would be asked if they approve funding of an arena and other amenities. The county's legal counsel believes that ballot language should be as general as possible.
That's a conundrum, Raimundo said, because voters want to know what they're getting for the money.
"The less specific they are, the more difficult the sales job will be," he said.
Mahood knows there's a lot of work ahead. If and when he gets the endorsement of his board this week, he will begin to form a campaign steering committee representing all sectors of the community.
"Once we get opinion leaders on the board, then we'll start going after various groups for support," Mahood said.
Money is a key factor, Mahood said. In the Measure A effort, there were no fundraising events. "We dialed for dollars," Mahood said.
Arena advocates already are tossing around some key talking points. They stress that the facility would be more than an arena, that it would host several other events, from tractor pulls to concerts. They emphasize the arena's potentially beneficial role in revitalizing the railyard, downtown and the region. And they point to a "yes" vote as an endorsement of Sacramento's image as a big city, with a prominent skyline as well as at least $594 million for community goodies.
Smith has also worked to secure support in the county's suburban cities, such as Folsom, Galt, Rancho Cordova, Isleton and Elk Grove. Although some representatives from those cities are dubious, others are avid supporters of the arena plan.
Linda Budge, a Rancho Cordova city councilwoman and Kings season ticket holder, said she'll be talking to people about the arena plan as she campaigns for re-election. Rancho Cordova is the only one of the cities to pass a resolution calling on county supervisors to put the arena tax increase on the ballot.
Tamayo, from People United, said he's not sure where supervisors stand on the issue. But arena supporters are contacting the supervisors, and pressure on the board is building.
"Unless it's on the ballot, we won't have an arena discussion," Mahood said. "And that would be a huge opportunity lost."
TAXING MATTERS
If voters agree to the quarter-cent sales tax to fund the arena and other community amenities, Sacramento County will have a sales tax rate of 8 percent. Only seven of the 58 counties in California have a sales tax of 8 percent or higher (certain cities within some counties have a higher rate than the county rate):
County: Alameda Sales tax: 8.75%
County: San Francisco Sales tax: 8.50%
County: Contra Costa Sales tax: 8.25%
County: Los Angeles Sales tax: 8.25%
County: San Mateo Sales tax: 8.25%
County: Santa Clara Sales tax: 8.25%
County: Santa Cruz Sales tax: 8.00% Note: The sales tax in El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba counties is 7.25%.
Source: California State Board of Equalization
About the writer: The Bee's Terri Hardy can be reached at (916) 321-1073 or thardy@sacbee.com.
