Mayor Paul Schell’s plans for an ambitious trio of ballot issues this fall has been downsized to a single levy.

The state Legislature shot down two of Schell’s proposals. One would have paid for street maintenance through a local gas tax. Another would have created an independent taxing authority for the zoo. What remains is a combo platter serving both downtown and neighborhood interests.

Schell wants to present voters with a $72 million levy package in November. Half of the money would go towards Seattle Center: specifically, the renovation of the Opera House and replacement of the Flag Pavilion with a new structure. The other half would benefit Seattle’s community centers, rebuilding and renovating five centers and extending operating hours throughout the rest of the system.

Seattle Center officials are promoting the Opera House plan as a multifaceted makeover for the 1927 facility. The building was completely made over for the 1962 World’s Fair, but its antiquated systems are showing their age, says project spokesperson Kym Allen.

The package would address remodeling deficiencies like the Opera House’s tacky entry lobby, which would be replaced by a three-story glass atrium. An innovative design scheme will narrow the overwide auditorium, while seismically shoring up the decades-old structure. Private contributions would cover most of the job’s $110 million price tag; the city’s contribution would be $29 million of levy funding, plus $9 million from other city sources.

The levy would also provide $7 million to replace the aging Flag Pavilion and eliminate the Flag Plaza, creating a landscaped open space. The levy would replace the 1991 Seattle Center levy, which expires this year, so backers can argue it represents no net increase in a homeowner’s property tax bill.

In the neighborhoods, the mayor is proposing to expand and replace five community centers and fund seven-day-a-week operations at all centers citywide. This section of the levy would include $500,000 to fund the community use of Seattle School District buildings during non-school hours and a $6 million opportunity fund for the lease, renovation, or purchase of other facilities to be used by community groups.

Schell’s community center proposal is innovative in proposing that levy money fund day-to-day center operations. City Council policy has long reserved funds raised through ballot issue for capital purposes, as council member Jan Drago pointedly notes. “I basically believe that bonds and levies should go for bricks and mortar—not staffing,” she says. Some council members are concerned about the hit the city’s general fund will take when the eight-year levy expires and the city has to pick up the cost of funding everyday operation of the community centers.

Levy backers are more concerned about an idea being floated by council member Nick Licata that the Seattle Center and community centers proposals be presented to the voters as separate ballot issues. Licata presents the split as giving voters more of a choice. “I think the Seattle Center and the Opera House have a large constituency, but they’re not necessarily the same [constituency] as the community centers’,” he says. “It’s not an antiSeattle Center position, because I’d like to see both halves pass.” Licata says city residents have approved multiple ballot issues before, including in 1986, when they voted in favor of a measure to fund the downtown Seattle Art Museum and one to build low-income housing for seniors.

Deputy Mayor Tom Byers argues that, whatever Licata’s intentions, the political conventional wisdom is that, when presented with more than one ballot issue at the same time, voters are unlikely to back both.

But the Seattle Center has created a few campaign hurdles for itself. Potential bond opponents were handed a campaign sound bite through the hiring of project architects Loschky Marquardt and Nesholm while firm principal John Nesholm is serving as president of the Opera Board. Backers are also soft-pedaling the issue of the Opera Hall’s new name, especially as media reports have claimed a price tag of $15 million for the structure’s “naming rights.” The Seattle Center’s Allen says a major gift might lead to the hall bearing the name of a major local philanthropist (as in the Benaroya Symphony Hall), but not a corporate handle. Until then, the renovated facility will be known in city planning documents by the populist tag of “Community Performance Hall.”