Lars Larson: Blazer $$ blowout, raw deal

By Lars Larson
NW and national radio host,

Folks, have I got a deal for you.

Buy my house for a buck. The deal comes with strings, of course.

I get to keep living in the house.

You pay half my remodel costs. I can stay as long as I want and leave anytime.

And you won’t have a tenant. Oh, and I don’t pay any property taxes.

If you think it sounds like a dumb deal, you’re right.

Only Portland just cut that very deal with the Trail Blazers.

Portland buys the MODA center for 7 million.

The Blazers escape 1.2 million in annual property taxes.

The team already gets a screaming deal.

MODA’s worth about half a billion but pays property taxes on less than 20 percent.

I’d love to have that deal, myself.

Taxpayers fund half the needed remodel.

No one knows THAT price tag but it seems likely to hit 8 figures, maybe even 9.

All citizens get is title to the property…a piece of paper.

The Blazers can leave in 5 years and the city could end up with a big empty venue and no anchor tenant, like Memorial coliseum.

And who cut this dumb deal? Trust fund multi-millionaire “Feckless” Ted Wheeler…who strolls out of the Mayor’s office in a few months after laying waste to the rest of the city…and never has to look back.

That’s the Rose City Rap. Join me at noon on KXL for First Amendment Friday. I’m Lars Larson