SEATTLE: Frank Ruano, a longtime civic activist, hopes to
"derail" the September 19 King County vote on a sales tax hike to
fund a new stadium for the Mariners, according to Rebecca Boren
of the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER. Yesterday, county officials
"scrambled to produce a legal opinion" that would stop Ruano from
filing a referendum today that would tie up the proposal until
the Mariners' Septemeber deadline for deciding whether to sell
the team. In King County, petitioning for a referendum suspends
any ordinance in question for 45 days while referendum supporters
gather signatures (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, 7/27).
CINCINNATI: Hamilton County commissioners voted 2-1
yesterday to approve a 1% tax increase to pay for construction of
new stadiums for the Reds and Bengals. About $35M of the
estimated $100M in annual revenue from the increase would go to
raze Riverfront Stadium and build separate stadiums for each
team. However, opponents of the move were set to gather the
26,700 signatures on each of two separate petitions needed to
halt the increase until a referendum in March (CINCINNATI
ENQUIRER, 7/27).
