The Seattle City Council should feel a moral obligation to "just say no" to the Sonics request to remodel Key Arena. Maintaining our public spaces (parks, schools, community centers, roads, etc.) are necessary investments in our infrastructure, but extending what amounts to a subsidy for a team of millionaires is not a critical need - that's why I was pleased to see your recent editorial, "Sonic the tax-hog" (April 26. 2006)

Budgets at each level of government are moral documents. They identify our collective priorities and reveal the values we hold about our community. Public budgets get funded through our taxes and tax expenditures should reflect what is in the interest of the common good. Our public budgets should reflect the values of equality, opportunity, stewardship and justice that honor the poor, support families, and build strong, viable communities.

As a person of faith, I believe it is immoral to collect and spend limited public tax dollars to benefit the bottom line of private interests. We are told there isn't enough money for health care, education or housing for people who can't afford it, but somehow we should pony up over $200 million in a so-called economic development scheme for millionaire players and billionaire owners of a sports team.

In some ways fighting against sports facilities feels like "David against Goliath". The taxpayers of this community and state are up against powerful economic interests with resistance little more than moral outrage. And as with the ancient Roman Coliseum, the professional sports stadiums are becoming more and more the playground of the elite, the powerful and the wealthy. One difference - the Coliseum was built to last, unlike the remodel of Key Arena, which is only 12 years old. The cost of tickets, let alone box seats and suites, are out of reach for most of our citizens.

In your editorial you raised the question of what is the test of a great city. Is it to find ways to care for the least of these and heal the brokenness in our communities or is it to create wealth for those who already have more than enough? The gap between the haves and have-nots exploded over the past 25 years and our State's regressive tax system reflects the same disparity. How can government priorities that set the protection of the wealth of risk-taking billionaires and lavishly paid sports figures above the safety of the thousands of people who drive on the viaduct each day, above the education of a child in an unsafe, dilapidated school; above housing for people who work full-time, but can't afford rent be morally justified? We can and must do better.

Whether at the state, county or city level, subsidies for professional sports are the ultimate in hypocrisy - the hypocrisy of taking care of our playthings, our entertainment, and doing that under the guise of economic development. The Seattle Sonics pay their players an average of $3.1 million per year apiece. They don't need protection from change in the economic world. They don't need the taxpayers' protection from loss. Rather, the citizens of Washington need protection from the avarice and greed of wealthy team owners and players.

Some of us are having a So-Long Sonics party at noon on Thursday, May 11 on the 4th Avenue side of City Hall and you're invited. We'll have some MVP (More Valuable Priorities) trophies, going away cards for everyone to sign and other fun stuff to wish the Sonics well in their future. The party will be full of fun, but we're dead serious in our message to the City Council - Set Your Priorities Straight - no giveaways to billionaires.

For more information and to sign an online petition to the City Council go to http://www.finethenleave.com.

Alice Woldt is the member of the "So Long Sonics Party" organizing committee.