Voters OK Town Toyota Bailout

Pollstar Staff
2:10 am, Friday, 04/27/2012
Industry Hotwire

Voters in two Washington counties have overwhelmingly approved a sales tax increase to bail out the Town Toyota Center arena in Wenatchee.

The proposal to allow the arena’s Public Facilities District to impose a 0.1-percent regional sales tax increase passed with a combined 63 percent approval as of an April 17 ballot count.

The tax is expected to bring in some $1.7 million per year in the nine jurisdictions of the Greater Wenatchee Regional Events Center Public Facilities District, according to the Wenatchee World. The 5,000-capacity arena is reported to be about $42 million in debt, and went into default in December.

“Good for the region for stepping up,” Wenatchee Mayor Frank Kuntz said. “None of this is easy. But it had to be done.”