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📍PORTLAND, Ore. — As the Trail Blazers and the city of Portland continue to battle publicly over terms of a lease that could determine the team's future in Portland, a major box for the nearly $600 million funding proposal for Moda Center renovations has been checked.
On Thursday afternoon, Multnomah County commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of a funding resolution that will commit up to $101 million from the county towards the project, locking in two out of the three public commitments to renovate the 31-year-old arena. The vote came at the end of an hours-long board meeting that frequently got derailed by semantic arguments over language in amendments that didn't make the final term sheet. County Commissioner Meghan Moyer was the lone dissenting vote.
The exact source of the money the county is contributing to the project is yet to be fully decided. Various proposals have been focused on contributing $53 million from a 2.5 percent county tax on rental cars, as well as $35 million from the business income tax windfall the county received when the sale of the Blazers from Paul Allen's estate to Tom Dundon's Rip City Rising group officially closed on March 31. Three out of the five commissioners voted in favor of an amendment taking the business tax money out of the term sheet, a proposal that had drawn backlash because that money would otherwise go to the general fund.
A proposed amendment that would have taken the entire $88 million from the rental-car tax was also shot down during Thursday's special meeting. The proposal that made the final term sheet was one introduced by commissioner Shannon Singleton, which called for the county's CFO to develop a comprehensive funding plan in the coming months, which is expected to include other tourism taxes in addition to the rental-car tax, while protecting money that would be part of the general fund. Singleton's amendment failed the first time it was introduced, but passed on a second vote when commissioner Vince Jones-Dixon switched his vote from a no to a yes.
Another item that drew pushback during the six-hour meeting was the revelation that the county had hired Chris Oxley as their negotiator for the final agreement with the Blazers, city and state. Oxley currently sits on the board of the lobbying group Sport Oregon, which has lobbied the county in favor of funding Moda Center renovations. He also previously worked for the Blazers for over a decade, most recently serving as senior vice president of government affairs and strategic initiatives from 2019 to 2023 before leaving the organization. Several commissioners called out Oxley's appointment as county negotiator for this project as a conflict of interest.
The county did unanimously approve several protections for themselves. There's now language in their term sheet saying they can't pay more than the city towards the renovations, a clause saying they can get back their contributions if the Blazers leave and a seat on the joint authority along with city and state officials, that will oversee decisions relating to the arena.
"I want this step today to be seen by the NBA and the board of governors as a sign of just how serious we are about keeping the Blazers here in Portland,” county chair Jessica Vega Pederson said.
Now, two of the three components to the funding package are officially committed. The state of Oregon voted this spring in favor of paying $365 million in bonds backed by "jock tax" revenue from income taxes on Blazers player and staff salaries. That bill passed through the state legislature easily in March and was signed by Gov. Tina Kotek. However, those bonds expire at the end of the calendar year if the city and the Blazers have not agreed to a new Moda Center lease of at least 20 years.
That part has proven more complicated than expected, and will only get more contentious between now and an expected city council vote on a term sheet this coming Wednesday.
Dundon and NBA commissioner Adam Silver have both said publicly in previous months that the $573 million funding package passing would take the possibility of the Blazers leaving Portland off the table. However, in recent weeks it's become clear that the team and city are still far apart on some key issues that will have to be negotiated between now and the deadline to agree on a final lease in December. The Blazers have objected to items in a proposed term sheet from the city that would require the team to pay upwards of $3 million per year in tax offsets, cover cost overruns above the agreed-on budget and commit to using union labor for construction work during the three-year renovation, among other issues.
All of that will be ironed out between the city, state, county and team in the next four months, assuming the city passes a preliminary term sheet committing to $120 million towards the renovations next week, which they are expected to approve.
At this stage, the Blazers' long-term future in Portland is far from secured; that could take until December and will likely be even more contentious than the past few months have been between the sides. But with the county making official their commitment of over $100 million to the project, one of the biggest and most important hurdles has been cleared.
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Sean Highkin
