The Seattle City Council is working Tuesday to finalize the transportation levy proposal set to appear on November’s ballot and set the course for spending on streets, transit, sidewalk, and bike lanes for the next eight years.
Tuesday’s session will focus on debate over a roster of amendments with proposed additions and cuts to the package that could raise the price tag from its current $1.55 billion level.
Tammy Morales representing South Seattle’s District 2 is coming to the table with proposed additions that could push the total levy to $1.7 billion including adding $15.5 million more for “neighborhood-initiated safety projects,” $14.5 million more “for the creation of new sidewalks and safe pathways,” and $30 million more for arterial roadway maintenance.
Exactly how high to stretch in the levy plan is at the core of the final debates. The city says that under the current expiring levy, the cost to a typical homeowner is around $24 per month. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s initial eight-year levy proposal would increase the monthly cost by 70% to $41 per month.
The council has since stretched the total by another $100 million with proposals for increased spending on sidewalks, bikes, and transit and could stretch it further Tuesday.
District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth was bringing two proposed amendments (PDF) to the table Tuesday. One would add 12th Ave from E Madison St to the Jose Rizal Bridge to the “Estimated Investments list for Protected Bike Lanes” designated in the levy proposal, A second would cut $15 million from a “New Sidewalks and Alternative Walkways” package and add $15 million for “Sidewalk Safety Repair.”
Once finalized at City Hall, the levy decision will go to voters and be part of November’s ballot with strong turnout expected due to the presidential election.
UPDATE: The council committee finalized a proposal that will set the levy at $1.55 billion, voting against amendments that would have added another $200 million in spending and rejecting calls from street safety and transit proponents to dedicate more spending to pedestrian, bike, and bus infrastructure and programs. The full council will finalize the proposal in a vote planned for next week.
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I know supporters of the current council would reject the “austerity” label, but this levy isn’t going to come close to providing an adequate baseline considering our current growth pattern.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/07/01/seattles-population-nears-800000-in-latest-state-tally/
Increasing taxes on the wealthy is the only feasible solution for funding public works, so why is the council and mayor pretending like they don’t already know that’s just a reality? Feels a lot like they’re trying to convince the public to accept cuts our own beloved community services and amenities, such as planned funding for a robust public transit network and clean/connected sidewalks for all neighborhoods, in an insincere attempt to balance the budget (but in actuality is just an attempt to save their rich donors on a tax bill).
Why not just grow up and start taxing the massively under-taxed, wealthy citizens of this city?? We’re waiting…
Because they are the ones that have funded the mayor and most of the current council members campaigns and they only need these things to function just well enough so that they don’t have to think about them.
Reducing spend on grift is also another way to raise money for public works. Further, income taxes are not permitted by our state constitution, so good luck on getting that passed, and also good luck on getting tax passed only on a certain set of individuals.
How would this work? Property taxes are set by the county, not the city. What other kind of taxes are you thinking of?
How would it work, or where is the political will? Sorry to say, but if you were curious you should’ve asked Kshama Sawant while she was still in office. I’m not paid to come up with policy, nor do I have all answers…but it’s also not hard to figure out that the money for public works should and will always come from public coffers going forward.
Transportation isn’t just a Seattle issue, so the county and state need to fall in line with the population majority. If we can raise the minimum wage in a bubble, we can increase taxes in a bubble. It’s not like we don’t have a sizeable and under-taxed population of wealthy citizens who own multiple properties…how about a vacancy tax that increases over time for a start? Multiple units tax? Quadruple vehicle registration amounts.
‘Whichever’ leaning on the “state constitution” argument is the same lame-brained bs that’s keeping our idiotic federal constitution “intact”, and also the impetus for why the 2nd amendment is still alive, like an undead zombie, terrorizing the living. In fact, why change anything!
BINGO!
Thanks. I needed Kshama Sawant.
Raising property taxes is completely feasible, and is much more progressive than sales and income taxes. It has the effect of “taxing the wealthy” but manages to do it in a way that isn’t easily moveable across the lake/county/country.
Um no… that is quite incorrect. Property taxes are not more progressive than income taxes… property taxes end up affecting people who are not necessarily high earners or are on fixed incomes, just because their neighborhoods have gentrified around them. Property tax is classified as a regressive tax, income tax is a proportional tax.
From Investopedia “Regressive vs. Proportional vs. Progressive Taxes: An Overview Tax systems in the U.S. fall into three main categories: Regressive, proportional, and progressive. Regressive and progressive taxes impact high- and low-income earners differently, whereas proportional taxes do not. Property taxes are an example of a regressive tax; the U.S. federal income tax is a progressive tax example; and occupational taxes are a type of proportional tax.
Regressive taxes have a greater impact on lower-income individuals than on the wealthy. A proportional tax, also called a flat tax, affects low-, middle-, and high-income earners relatively equally. They all pay the same tax rate, regardless of income.
A progressive tax has more of a financial impact on higher-income individuals than on low-income earners, with tax rates and tax liability increasing in line with a taxpayer’s income. Investment income and estate taxes are examples of progressive taxes in the U.S.
Excuse me – misstated. Income tax is a progressive, not proportional tax..
My thinking is this. Get it done. The whole thing. If we happen to miss something? We can adjust it later.
Why shoot for the whole package? Inflation inflation inflation. EVERY time we delay or hedge? It costs much more at the end. The ferries are a perfect example of large projects ballooning out of shears spite for a real, comprehensive plan. It’s pieve mauled to death. “We just had an 80 million dollar levy two years ago! What more do the want?” The wealthier home owners cry. Nevermind their investment has paid off handsomely. As well as all other investments.
Seattle tends to let perfect be the enemy of good.
WA. is the most regressive state in the union.
I would normally vote for a measure like this, but am hesitating due to the massive increase over the expiring levy. And I don’t trust SDOT to spend the money wisely.
That’s fine, things never get more expensive as time goes on, right? I’m sure the next 3 billion called for levy just to maintain our 60’s infrastructure will be spent just as wisely.
Construction costs have more than doubled since 2015. This is actually a decrease from the previous levy considering the real value of money.
Also, SDOT did a decent job with the last levy considering construction costs doubled during that time, including massive month over month increases during deep COVID.
I’m guessing you just don’t like society spending any money on itself.
We’re doomed to have two streetcar lines that don’t connect, forever lol
One was a consolation prize for First Hill – which got screwed over not once, but twice, by Sound Transit – and is one of the most dense neighborhoods in Seattle, as well as one that has significant commuters to the hospitals and schools in the area. But hey – Shoreline and Lynnwood get train stations. Yay?
The other was – IMO – just a ploy to some nostalgia. And IIRC it was also subsidized by Amazon, because it benefited them more than the public, who didn’t really bother to ride it because it doesn’t go anywhere useful.
Common to both of them is the lack of grade separation means they sit in the very same traffic as the cars do.
The spending on pet projects outside necessary infrastructure is out of control. the lack of sidewalks alone speak to the distractions of bike lanes and “equity” intiatives that do nothing to manage the population growth. Between the previous billion and the car tabs, we should have prioritized to be better off. Instead we have a glorified bike network the leaves all other streets more dangerous and grid locked. Thankfully Sarah Nelson seems to get it.
My favorite example of wasteful bike infra is Broadway. For all that it cost, it is sparsely used. Of course, our esteemed cyclists never like anything that they’re given, so then there’s that.
I mean, I bike, I even bike commute but I avoid the broadway corridor and most of the new bike infrastructure because of the traffic, super dangerous turns, etc. Putting bike lanes etc through greenways and areas off the main drag is something more normal people who ride a bike and actually fear death would use, would be cheaper and wouldn’t piss off everyone else as much as destroying a major roadway for a pretty useless bike lane setup.
When I drive I’m still startled by scooters and bikes blasting out from behind a line of parked cars as I turn right on green.
It’s almost like the people the city has coming up with this stuff have no idea what they’re doing OR are making it intentionally expensive and shitty for all of us.
I live here on Broadway. Are you kidding me?
Nobody has cars here really. It’s all scooters and Ubers. Most cars are from outside of town. You clearly do not ride a bike. “sparsely used”…That’s not in the same galaxy as the truth. I see it all day daily.
I agree, I rarely see any bikers in the bike lanes on Broadway (I see more going by own building, not on Broadway). People I know w/bikes says they avoid Broadway because it’s too busy. And it is simply not true that “most cars” here “are from outside of town.”
People don’t use the Broadway bike lane because it’s a shite design… and I say this as a full time bicycle commuter. They took a bad route to ride and made it worse because they made it look better to the uninitiated.
I wonder how much $ we would need for transit projects if people actually renewed their car tabs. Driving here I see easily 1/3 of cars driving on expired tabs some 3-5yrs lapsed. Why should any of us absorb massive increases in taxes when people driving cars are not even paying? It would be nice if they would ticket and actually enforce keeping plates renewed. That money goes to funding alot of this upkeep and transit projects.
really? 1/3? 3-5 years? Really?
Where is this magical place?
Try driving around on a freeway sometime.
I believe it.. my insurance company told me 1 in 3 drivers on the road is uninsured. What makes you think they renew their tags at any better rates.
Or worse the number still driving around on not only expired, but out of state plates… or expired temporary tags… or just no plates at all… I see so many…
Sidewalks are expensive, like crazy expensive. We need more of them in this city, but they are not a good return on the value project for levies such as these.
You could probably spend this entire levy on building out remaining sidewalks in the city and still have a significant chunk to go. A sidewalk alone isn’t very expensive or very difficult, but that pales in comparison to all the work (roadway modifications, grading, utility work, ROW purchases, etc) involved in constructing a sidewalk.
Bike lanes by comparison are a great return on value. Just because you are told to hate bikes by the angry man on the radio doesn’t mean they are a bad investment.
There’s a reason there are so many places with no sidewalks: they’re difficult and expensive. The best way to get new sidewalks is to encourage more development in areas with no sidewalks. Problem is, those places don’t want new development, so they don’t get new sidewalks.
Not sure what ‘it’ is that you’re referring to, but she generally doesn’t get much of anything; she kind of exists in her own reality where her constituents don’t matter or exist. Voters will let her know November 2025.
If you live here long enough you will hear, “this levy will be used to create the missing sidewalks” again and again… it never happens, the money always get siphoned off for something else.
Whatever levy we approve will go for whatever projects the city decides to fund… it is just a pot of money.
I am not averse to spending on infrastructure – but please, please stop trying in say it will make anything safer.. NOTHING the city has done has made our streets safer. If anything they’ve made them worse. They made them more confusing and caused the people who are easily frustrated and road rage because of it 100X worse because they are “stuck” behind the few people who actually follow all the new rules. More people than ever speed and weave because of the new speed limits and traffic calming measures… more people cut through neighborhoods because of new lights… more people feel free to run reds because they know the pedestrian pause at red lights stops traffic for a few extra seconds -I now expect that around 3 people will continue through the red, especially when there’s a lot of traffic… People feel free to park wherever they please, even when it’s a no parking zone and they are blocking traffic flow and sight lines.
The ONLY thing that will get people to stop their bad behaviors is ticketing. Lots of consistent, expensive tickets.