As noted in our year-end review (ETS! #2-16, Dec. 23, 1997), last June's vote to provide public funding for Paul Allen's new Seahawks stadium was remarkable for its success in destroying public faith in the democratic process. Allen, for only $12 million in spare change, provided millions of us with an unforgettable civics lesson: everything is for sale, nothing we do matters.

Even worse, we're for sale at bargain prices. Allen at least doubled his investment in public avarice on election day, when the Seahawks' market value went up tens of millions of dollars. And at every step of stadium development since then, he's continued to find quiet ways to squeeze more public money out of the stadium development process.

Election opponents pointed out untold ways in which the state's enabling law enriched a multi-billionaire at public expense; the terms of the stadium's "public-private partnership" are, to a startling degree, that the public pays all the money (perhaps $700 million, with interest, in bonds alone), and the private makes all the decisions and keeps all the income. Allen pays minimal rent, makes all decisions, and gets all of the sublease and concession income, all income for his convention center (drawing business from a competing, publicly funded downtown facility), 90% of parking revenue, local coverage of infrastructure costs, expedited permit procedures, waived environmental impact and state contract laws. And that was all public knowledge last June. Since then, it's been getting worse.

First came the state Dept. of Transportation news, days after the election, that we'd need another $136 million or so to fix the traffic mess created by the new stadium complex. Then, Allen announced plans for an enormous adjacent office tower complex at Union Station, defying community activist desires for mixed use housing in the area to mitigate the stadiums' impact. Eleven million dollars in traffic money is now proposed for two skybridges to connect Allen's Union Station project with Allen's stadium complex.

Public oversight of Allen's stadium empire has been a very bad joke. The Public Stadium Authority is a secretive body, stocked with insiders, acting primarily to funnel yet more tax money Allen's way. The company--exempt from state bidding requirements--that got the stadium construction contract is reportedly controlled by Allen. There are no public reporting requirements or controls on how Allen spends tax money, or how profitable his public/private investment is. The stadium's near-total exemption from even the basic permit oversights private projects must meet is a stunning precedent for a publicly funded facility.

This has surely been noticed by Weyerhaueser, Boeing, and other big players eager for slices of the same public investment action. One of the major stadium debacle legacies turns out to be a key state Supreme Court decision that ended challenges to the Mariners' project by OKing lawmakers' ability to name as an "emergency" anything they want. Such a designation exempts bills from a host of normal requirements and chances for public challenge. With our megaproject- happy new mayor, a long-time incumbent (Sue Donaldson) heading Seattle City Council, and a new legislative session gearing up in Olympia, watch out for more Allen-greasing in 1998--and more emergencies we didn't even know we had.