Americans Providing $154 Million for College Football in Seattle

With its 92-year-old football stadium starting to crumble, the University of Washington began contemplating a renovation half a dozen years ago. One financing idea -- getting $150 million from Seattle-area taxpayers -- ran afoul of state Representative Ross Hunter. The state was reducing college funding, and tuition was surging.

“We were cutting billions of dollars out of our budget, and we are going to build a stadium. Really?” says Hunter, 51, a Democrat from Medina who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “I was OK with saying ‘No.’”