Already gone

The Portland Trail Blazers basketball team is leaving Oregon. At least the part of Oregon where you pay taxes to fund public services.

It's been revealed that the team is going to push to have the state pay a large chunk of the $600 million liar's budget to renovate the Moda Center arena, in which the team plays. If the state doesn't chip in, the clear implicit threat is that the 'Zers wil leave for another city. Seattle or Las Vegas would welcome them with open arms.

The way the Blazers would get the state money is to have a law passed similar to the one that's supposed to bring a major league baseball team to Portland (which, by the way, is never going to happen). Under that law, the income tax money the state would collect from the Portland baseball players, from the rest of the team's employees, and from visiting players would all go to pay for building the stadium. In the Blazers' case, the funds would go toward renovating the existing game venue. The estimate of the tax revenue is $20 million a year.

Of course, there's an important difference between the baseball pipedream and the Blazers' request. The tax revenue that they're talking about with baseball doesn't exist yet. The tax revenue that the Blazers want spent on their high-priced home court is money that the state already collects and uses. And so unlike the baseball plan, the Blazers' proposal would take $20 million a year out of the state budget as currently configured.

The response, of course, is that if the Blazers leave, so will that $20 million – and lots more as the result of the abrupt economic contraction that such an exit would cause. And so the state will have to decide whether to lose the money and still have the Blazers, or lose even more money and not have the Blazers.

How big a cash grab is this? Well, the $20 million would presumably go to pay off bonds that would fund the arena renovation. At 4 percent interest over 20 years (the bonds would be tax-exempt, I assume, as the city technically owns the building now), $20 million a year has a present value of about $272 million. That ain't hay.

The political throwdown triggered by the team's request sure is going to be interesting. Given that sports teams have become billionaire playthings, given the lousy quality of the product that the Portland organization has put on the floor for many years now, given the hideous tax climate in Portland, and given the terrible financial conditions of the state and city, it's not going to be, well, a slam dunk.

But let the debate begin! And while you're at it, I'd like the state income taxes I pay to replace the roof of my house. How about it, Salem?