Seattle budget director Dwight Dively recommends taking the bulk of the $45 million settlement the city received from the Sonics, and use it to pay off the $34.2 million debt remaining on Key Arena’s 1995 remodel.
Yeah, I suppose we could do that. Or, we could take the entire $45 million and buy bad debt from Key Bank at face value. Perhaps our fiscally conservative Republican readers can chime in with their advice?
who owns the debt?
Given the current collapse, perhaps we can renegotiate?
Or, if it is WAMU, maybe this is enough (:)> to buy WAMU itself and them we can own out own debt!
Persoanlly, if we can have the Feds buy banks, why can’t we do it at the City level? Instead of spending billions on transportation, we can buyout WAMU. This wold make us our own preferred customer so we could get loans real cheap!
Maybe I am on a roll!?
1 Local and state governments have to have the cash on hand (or sell collateralized bonds) to buy anything. Uncle Sam, on the other hand, can simply print as many dollars as he wants to…or at least up to a point. The market may be getting a little soft for toilet paper with pictures of dead presidents.
Duh. Why wouldn’t we use that money to pay off the debt. Oh wait. We ARE that stupid.
Should be a no-brainer. Pay off the debt and keep the rest for a rainy day.
It’s coming pretty soon.
Paying off debt is always preferred.
Artfart @ # 2 said: “The market may be getting a little soft for toilet paper with pictures of dead presidents.”
I’m still chuckling over that one.
FWIW Artfart
Economic Satire
I am joking, but I am not sure you are correct.
Uncle can not print money. He/it can oly borrw money.
The Fed Reserve is an independent agency that “creates” money. I do not know if under our laws, the Fed can simply transfer that to GWB but I do not think so, Tehy could loan money to “us.”
As for the City buying a bank, I am not sure whether that is legal. It seems, however, we can own football stadia so why not own a bank?
I know we can not (under WALAW) borrow money but we can issue bonds. So suppose WAMU has a paper value of 23 billion dollars. What is to prevent Seattle from issuing bonds to buy it? The bonds would be backed, ideally, by WAMUs fixed assets and by the ability of WAMU as a Government entity to function w/o paying taxes.
In effect this would mean Seattle could leverage itself! So we could build the 520 bridge using money we loan ourselves thru WAMU!
Moreover, WAMU would be in a great position to quitclaim bad mortgages in Seattle. This could be used in many effective ways to either use the non-taxed status as way to lower mortgage rates, or rent the houses back to their owners until the market ises, etc.
Imagine, getting a free toaster with your taxes!
hehehehehehe
http://politicalwire.com/archi.....e_day.html
It looks like the obama campaign needs bailing out.
Compare the empty seats for the empty suit and the filled seats for mcsame/palin.
And it’s not just ABC news that noticed.
@9: Lame Stamm
Your candidate is losing big now. The tide has turned and the polls are showing the McCain/Palin serial liars are losing votes.
Oucch!
Even conservative George Will is questioning McCain’s poor judgement
Obama held a rally on a Monday morning, McCain on a Thursday night.
One less straw for you to clutch at, Mr. socialism-loving Republican Marvin Stamm.
Or, are you Republicans full blown communists this week? Your Republican values change so often a person needs a scorecard to keep up.
http://apnews.myway.com/articl.....P7MG0.html
Good.
Find out who was running these companies into the ground and hang’em high….
I don’t care which side of the aisle one comes from, the FBI is a great investigative organization and they WILL get to the bottom of this…I have a strong feeling that hands are dirty all over the place….
@12 Agreed – hang ’em high and make sure they can’t do it again.
Looks like Rick Davis and McCain have some ‘splainin to do. After lashing out at the media and claiming “no connection” with Fannie Mae – it turns out Rick Davis’ firm was paid 15K a month until last month.
Looks like McCain either lied again or did not know his campaign manager was bought and sold by the companies he is criticizing – either way mcCain looks mighty bad.
Guess that is what happens when your whole campaign is run by lobbyists.
Amen, RS.
And as far as the KeyArena debt is concerned, pay it right the fuck off, and bring this whole sad story to a close. Preferably by blowing the fucking thing up.
It isn’t the 34.2 million dollar debt payoff that is the point for debate, but the 10.8 million dollar left over that in part would go for minor upgrades, ok, but the “lost revenue” is simply a dump into the general fund.
About a month ago the city approved a Master Plan for Seattle Center that will cost 567 million dollars, plans for that will be coming from Mayor McCheese shortly. I think any money beyond paying of Key Arena debt retirement should stay on the site and go toward putting the plan into action, and not pissed away by the city council on a self-cleaning-toilet-trolley that circles a green space/sculpture park/ New home to Nickelsville-hempfest 2009.
Just sayin’
I can’t help but think that all this $700 billion “payoff? =PAYOUT?) is ,is one giant futile BANDAID!!! I mean who’s holding THIS gun to our heads? WHO has the bullets NOW? We are all getting what we deserve for letting this fubared Administration take over when we ALL know that it was and IS all based in LIES! They got in TWICE on LIES!! If we had done the right thing eight years ago and let the man who WON the election BE our PRESIDENT, then we would be safe. NOW WHAT???Does Daddy Bush know what to do now? GOOD OLE”GEORGE W. ain’t got a leg to stand on. Now we don’t either…..