News

Five to Four

by Josh Feit

The internecine workings to decide next year's city council president shifted dramatically last week, as front-runner status flitted through the lordly hands of Jim Compton. (Contenders need the five-to-four majority to become council prez.)

Council Member Heidi Wills--the key swing vote because she's held out on saying who she will support--reportedly decided she wouldn't support Compton. This threw the process into a bit of turmoil, and Richard Conlin, who was Compton's main rival, is now apparently facing new competition from Peter Steinbrueck and Richard McIver.

No New Taxes

Recession got you struggling to pay your basic bills? Too bad--unless you're West Seattle's Birmingham Steel, that is. Last month, Seattle City Light's largest customer told the city that, thanks to a downturn in the steel industry, the company couldn't pay the series of three surcharges the council passed this year for electricity customers. So, while other high-demand industrial customers are paying $55 per megawatt hour, Birmingham Steel will be paying $35. (Residential customers pay around $63.)

Seattle City Light wants you to know, though, that Birmingham didn't get a corporate subsidy; just a deferment. Starting in 2004, Birmingham, which employs 300 local folks, will have until 2008 to pay back the estimated $11.4 million (plus interest) saved in the short run. The city council votes on the deal December 6.

Tax Man

Council Member Peter Steinbrueck is planning to move on his long-standing idea of instituting a parking tax for commercial parking lots. Steinbrueck, who postponed the idea during last month's budget talks, says in the next few months he'll unveil a proposal that will hit commercial lots--like the Pacific Place garage, and even leased commercial lots used by businesses--with something approaching the city's 8.9 percent sales tax. Steinbrueck grouses that parking lots, which aren't bothered with a sales tax, have raised fees an average of 6.8 percent per year for the past 10 years. (Last year, local lots reported revenues in excess of $120 million.) Steinbrueck says a parking tax, which state law earmarks for transportation costs, could net $12 to $15 million for Seattle transportation programs. Steinbrueck casts doubt on the criticism that the tax will scare away shoppers, referencing San Francisco's 25 percent commercial lot tax.

And here's the lefty part: Steinbrueck wants a third of the money earmarked for "alternative transportation" programs, like bike lanes and Flexcar projects. "This is not just about increasing revenue for the city," Steinbrueck says. "As a matter of public policy, it has huge potential value."

josh@thestranger.com