Seattle deputy mayor Tim Ceis was back at it on Monday, as the City of Seattle again pursues $75 million in state authorized, King County taxes to help pay for a remodel of KeyArena.

Ceis presented his proposal to a seven-member task force assigned by state lawmakers to figure out how to deal with the pool of King County taxes available, with several other groups, including the University of Washington and the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, interesting in using funds for major porjects.

You can read about the meeting in this story.

Ceis presented the city's proposal as an improvement to the overall plan to revamp the Seattle Center, a 20-year face lift that includes a remodel of Memorial Stadium and other facility upgrades.

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Ceis also said the city has negotiated a new contract for the naming rights of KeyArena that will last through 2010. At that time, if funding is approved for a new facility, the city will negotiate a new contract for naming rights once the new building opens.

Ceis said the private investment group led by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer remains interested in bringing back the NBA to Seattle. Ballmer's group has committed $150 million to the project, along with purchasing an available team and bringing it back to Seattle. The city would contribute $75 million of its own funds, leaving a $75 million void the city hopes to fill with money from the city-only, hotel/motel tax source.

Ceis also says he does not regret how the city handled the court situation with the team. And based on how the team is performing in Oklahoma City, Ceis said he would do it all the same way if he had to do it again.

"Given the current economic situation and how the team is playing, I don't think I would do anything different," Ceis said. "The city financially is much better off right now, rather than sustaining two more years of financial losses with the team here and then holding onto $25 million in debt.

"I don't have those two years of losses. In fact I more than made up for them and I got rid of the debt. We did lose a team, which you can never compensate for. We understand that. But it was pretty clear that this ownership was moving this team out of Seattle, whether we let them go then or two years from now. So I think we're going to be better off with a new ownership group and a franchise that we'll be able to call the Sonics because we held onto the name, we held onto the history and the Sonics will return."

Listen to the conversation with Ceis here.

Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, one of the co-chairs of the group, said he would like to get some sort of agreement on how the group wants to handle the dispersion of the available money, or if they even want to continue the taxing source at all. If no agreement is reached, Hunter said the group will put together a report outlining all of the options and have that available to state lawmakers in the next couple weeks.

Listen to Hunter talk about how the task force will handle the proposals here.

Brian Robinson and Ryan Dicks of Sports and Activities for Families, a grass roots group working to help with the City of Seattle's effort, also were on hand.

If you're looking for information on the meeting or the proposals presented, you can find them here.