A solid base hit.

Byline: The Register-Guard

After months of wrangling and what looked like a strikeout in the Oregon Senate, a bill that might entice Major League Baseball to bring a team to Portland has cleared the Legislature. Senate Bill 5 doesn't by any means ensure that the Montreal Expos or some other team will end up in Portland, but it keeps the possibility alive.

The bill would provide the state's $150 million share of the estimated $350 million cost of a new baseball stadium. The measure accomplishes this in a novel way: by selling bonds and repaying them with state income taxes levied on the salaries of the baseball team's players and executives. The rest of the money would come from the city of Portland through, most likely, increases in hotel, motel and rental car taxes, a tax on game tickets, a charter seat program and private financing from as-yet-unidentified investors.

Portland is competing for the Expos, a financially strapped team of which Major League Baseball assumed ownership last year. The other bidders - neither of which has a stadium funding plan in place - are Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia.

Baseball officials imposed a Sept. 1 deadline on themselves to decide where the Expos will play in the 2004 season. If Portland lands the team, the Expos might play in Portland's minor league PGE Park until a new stadium is completed.

An important provision of SB 5 is that the state won't be liable for the $150 million in bond repayments unless the Expos or another big league team moves to Portland.

SB 5 followed a tortured route to approval. It sailed through the House in its original form, House Bill 3606, but became stalled in a Senate committee. To avoid the bill's becoming bottled up again, the House employed a strategy called "gut and stuff." The House stripped the contents of a bill that had already passed the Senate, stuffed it with the provisions dealing with the stadium and sent it back to the Senate. There, it was rejected, then reconsidered and finally passed.

Because of some amendments added in the Senate, the bill had to return to the House for final action. That came Monday on a 31-24 vote. The measure now goes to Gov. Ted Kulongoski for his signature - he's expected to sign it, not only because he's a strong backer of the bill, but also because building and operating a stadium would provide much-needed jobs.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Portland will strike out in its bid for the Expos. Passage of SB 5 doesn't assure anything but the possibility of a major league team coming to Portland. And that's reason enough to applaud its approval.