The Oregonian is reporting Merritt Paulson told a town hall meeting in Beaverton Tuesday night that he won't follow through on a Major League Soccer deal here in Portland if he can't secure a baseball deal over there. This is the same line Paulson gave at one point in Lents, before the SE Portland neighbors shouted him down.

You wouldn't think it would be so difficult for Paulson to push the Beaverton deal through. After all, Beaverton recently hired Paulson's own former consultant, Don Mazziotti, to lead its "community development department."

Now the Beaverton Valley Times is reporting that Beaverton plans to tax residents $5 per property through 2036 to pay for the $59million sports stadium without a public vote. Paulson won't actually contribute a cent to the development, other than pre-paying $9million in license fees and a paltry six percent of ticket fees that he would have had to pay, regardless.

Best of all, Beaverton city council says it has done a "visioning project," consulting just 4000 residents, who have "showed overwhelming interest in attending local events, such as concerts, sporting events or baseball games."

I'd rather watch the cub scouts do Tosca, personally. My point: Isn't that justificatory sentence a little broad?

We have a call in to City Commissioner Randy Leonard, who led the MLS deal with Paulson here, to get his reaction to Paulson's remarks.