Governor’s plan: Tax pro teams that visit state

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 19, 2000

Associated Press

OLYMPIA – It’s not exactly revenge against baseball star Alex Rodriguez for fleeing to Texas, but Washington Gov. Gary Locke has asked the Legislature to start taxing out-of-state sports franchises.

Locke’s plan is for professional sports clubs – not the individual players like A-Rod – to begin paying a 1.5 percent business and occupation tax, based on their earnings while playing here.

The players’ salaries and other team costs would be considered in calculating the tax, as would the team’s revenue, including ticket sales and broadcasting rights, that is attributed to the days it competes in Washington state.

It’s a way to get back some of A-Rod’s $252 million, 10-year salary when he comes back to Safeco Field as a Texas Ranger, joked Marty Brown, the governor’s budget director.

But Revenue Director Fred Kiga said that since Washington doesn’t have an income tax, there is no way to go after the earnings of individual players.

That means their ball clubs would pay the proposed tax bill, estimated at $3 million over the next two years.

Kiga said most states, primarily those with an income tax, already tax out-of-state clubs.

Washington-based teams, meanwhile, will get a tax break if the governor’s legislation goes through. That’s because the Mariners, SuperSonics, Seahawks and other home state teams will be able to shift some of their tax liability to the teams that share the box office receipts, Kiga said.

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