Beavers in Beaverton

The Portland Beavers would become the Beaverton Beavers if owner Merritt Paulson gets a requested public subsidy for a new minor league baseball stadium in Beaverton. The stadium would cost 59-million-dollars although that's well, a ballpark estimate, since no site has been decided on yet. Paulson would put up nine million, the City of Beaverton would put up 35 million from an increase in property taxes and utility fees that would average sixty dollars a year, and a ticket tax would cover the rest.

A local group opposing the effort questions whether this is the best investment of public funds. It's not really economic development. It's what's called the substitution effect. Instead of going ice-skating or to a movie on a Friday night, you might go to the ballpark. Entertainment dollars just get moved around. Public funding of the ballpark would mostly be a public subsidy for a private business that would create no new permanent jobs in the Portland area. The jobs would just be transferred from Portland to Beaverton.

Now it's true that if the 86-hundred seat stadium is built it could host some community activities. But bear in mind that this would be an outdoor venue and the Beavers would take up much of prime time. So what to do? The opposition is planning to gather signatures and put the issue on the ballot. We think the City should schedule an election without a signature-gathering effort and here's why: Beaverton's city charter calls for a public vote on any proposed urban renewal project that makes use of a certain kind of financing--tax increment financing. While this project does not use that kind of financing it would have a dedicated source of public funding and it is urban renewal. So in the spirit of the City of Beaverton city charter, it should be put on the ballot.