I'm shoulder deep working some old-fangled thing we call a printed newspaper, so I can't get much into it this morning. However, yesterday afternoon the Seattle City Council, by an 7-1 vote (Mike O'Brien voting no and Sally Clark was absent), elected to increase the tax on private parking lots. Reports the Seattle Times:

The city will use the additional $5.4 million a year in parking-tax revenue to help pay for its portion of the Mercer Street project and the replacement of the sea wall on Elliott Bay.

The council established a citywide taxing district, allowing it to ask voters for sales- and property-tax increases, tolling on local roads, and up to $80 more in annual car-tab fees.

The council is raising the parking tax from 10 percent to 12.5 percent, which is substantially less than Mayor Mike McGinn's recent proposal to raise it to 15 or 20 percent. McGinn has also suggested raising rates on downtown parking meters. We'll see how this plays out later this month, when McGinn submits his budget to the council. The citywide taxation district passed by an 8-0 vote, but requires further action to implement any rate hikes. The city must bridge a $67 million revenue gap in the general fund in 2011—to say nothing of an $8 million funding gap for the Seattle Department of Transportation—and more transportation taxes seem a likely target.