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.
Just another additional reason to continue avoiding coming downtown into Seattle to shop. I’m sure retailers will love the prospect of potential shoppers diverting their trips to Bellevue, Lynwood, or South Center! See ya!
Parking fees already keep many people from shopping in Seattle. So they increase them? They should have free parking weekends, Saturday and Sunday.
@1, since you already avoid going downtown to shop, your point is sort of moot. I live on the Eastside and never shop in Seattle, nor so I know anyone who does. On the other hand, this tax will hit people who work in Seattle, especially those who have to drive from place to place around the city all day. It’s yet another reason for a company not to locate itself in the city.
BTW, if Mike O’Brien voted no, isn’t that 8-1 for the tax?
! generally vote for democrat candidates. But here’s why I can at least somewhat relate to what the tea party jokers are all riled up about… There’s now yet another $20 tax in Seattle. Part of the rationale is that the Dept. of Transportation “is hurting” economically. Now consider the new ‘variable speed limit’ electronic signs that just went up on I-5 by Paine Field and downtown Seattle. The purpose of those signs is to let those SITTING in a traffic jam know that the MAXIMUM speed limit 1 1/2 miles up the road is 40mph. The price tag for that bit of genius? DOT implemented that project at a cost of approx. 24 million dollars.
http://www.seattlepi.com/transportation/…
I’m not endorsing the tea party or even republican party, but I am endorsing what any good democrat will tell you: take my fair share of taxes, PROVIDED that you spend them wisely, responsibly, and frugally. I think its time some people in city govt. lost their jobs.
I think that the mayor and city council have completely lost their minds (again). They simply have lost touch with the incredible hardships many citizens are having making ends meet, and then they decide to go and implement this new tax on those of us who might actually come downtown and patronage the downtown businesses.
@ 1 FTW
Oopps forgot the url rule when posting without an account.
The url from my previous post is http://www.seattlepi.com/transportation/425792_…;;
or
tinyurl.com/2fsnbdq
I live on First Hill, just 3 blocks from the Paramount Theater and the only place I shop at is Nordstroms Rack and its often large sized shoes (size 16). Almost everything else I get online or at Value Village.
Why would anyone want to shop downtown when theres so much more at Northgate or South Center.
Also, when the viaduct is torn down and replaced with another elevated viaduct, its going to displace a fuck-ton of parking, which will probably cause a small, but noticeable drop in revenue, so you may find parking fees raised again should the tunnel project not go forward. In fact, you may find those fees raised considerably because the state is only giving the city money for a tunnel. If we reject the tunnel and go with a rebuilt viaduct, the state will pull that money. If the state decides to declassify I-99, then its up to Seattle to bear the full costs of re-building the viaduct and those parking fees may skyrocket.
This is what happens when you keep voting for liberals and Democrats.
Bridging the Gap, 2006, 9 years, $365 million
So, that’s not enough for the elected leaders of Seattle. Now they want more. Please, all of you who vote blindly for every hair brained levy put in front of you, think next time
How much money is being spent on restriping streets for bike lanes? Is this really a good use of street maintenance dollars? I don’t think so. If dollars are stretched thin, I’d much rather see a street or sidewalk get repaired instead of money spent on a bike lane.
Y’all made your bed. Enjoy sleeping in it.
You might want to ask what all the folks at SDOT that were hired to fill the potholes that aren’t being filled right now are doing on the payroll besides ensuring the ruling classes re-election
bwhahahahah Seattleites are complete hypocrites!
@4 SDOT =/= WSDOT
“8-0 vote (Mike O’Brien voting no)”
Should that be 8-1 or did O’Brien chicken out again and abstain?
@8) Thanks, giffy. That should read “7-1.” It be fixed.
I’ve gotta respect O’Brien for voting no on this. McGinn hasn’t given us any reason to blindly trust him on tax increases without knowing what his budget is going to look like (obviously we know it’s going to be bleak, but I want to see what he plans to do with what he has first).
Yeah, every time I go downtown, whether it’s during the work week or on the weekends, the entire core is totally fucking deserted: no people, no cars, the handful of still struggling shop owners standing just outside their doors ready to pounce on the occasional errant pedestrian who has wandered into the area completely by mistake – I mean, seriously, it’s just like those old Western movies with the creaking windmills and tumbleweeds rolling unimpeded down the empty, dusty streets.
You suburbanites are well-advised to stay the fuck away. In a year or two, when the last squatter in Two Union finally gives up and moves on, I guess we can just plow the whole she-bang under and be done with it, since no other living human being will ever set foot there again, right?
Nitwits.
Can you hear it?
That giant sucking sound?
It’s all your taxes – for every renter and homeowner in Seattle, being accessed to build the Billionaires’ Tunnel.
This was step 2.
In the end, you’re all going to pay $10,000 per household for a vanity project that actually has HALF the freight capacity and ZERO downtown exits in comparison to the two CHEAPER alternatives.
Oh, and building the Billionaires Tunnel will put our County in violation of Global Warming Emissions AND particulate emissions.
Enjoy the EPIC FAIL.
@4 utter lie – only a Socialist Republicant or their Tea Party fellow traveler would use the phrase “Democrat candidate”.
Please stop lying. God sees it and you will go to Hell.
@2, sorry, but you’re on dope if you believe that. Parking is not underpriced. You can tell, because all the spaces are full. If everybody was in fact hurtling down to Southcenter, those spaces would be empty.
A “free parking day” would just result in all the spaces being full by 8 AM and staying that way all day. High parking rates ensure turnover, which dramatically INCREASES the number of shoppers; it doesn’t decrease it.
The fair price for parking is that which ensures that there is always one and only one space available within a block or so of where you’re trying to go. If you’re driving around in circles, parking is too cheap. At the mall, that price is zero, because the lot always has some empty spaces (except at Christmas). Downtown, it’s a little bit more than what they’re charging now.
@14 is correct. Damn, I hate when Fnarf is right.
Parking downtown used to cost $10 to $20 a day back in the 80s. It’s not much higher now. People like me used to pay that.
@14 Nope Fnarf is again proving itself an imbecile.
Parking rates wont ensure turnover. Rather it will ensure avoidance of the area.
And contrary to other assertations, people do come visit downtown for certain restaurants, shops and services which they can’t find elsewhere.
Or at least they used to….
How much of the budget shortfall is due to shit like this? It sure puts McGinn’s attempted theft of MOHAI’s money into perspective. How about this: He can get that $7 million if he tells Paul Allen to get bent.
@14,
All the spaces are full after 6 p.m. During the day, it’s a different story, especially before 3 p.m. when various parking spaces turn into bus zones.
#4
It is amazing that you will so quickly dismiss the projects that you think are not worth the money without doing some research on what the project’s intended purpose is. Have you looked at the project’s website?
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/I5/Acti…
Before a project like this is built there is a thorough review of the costs vs the benefits of the project. In this case there have been proven instances in other locations where “This technology has resulted in several benefits including a 30 percent reduction in injury collisions and a 22 percent increase in roadway capacity.” When it comes to roadway capacity if you want to increase that 20 percent typically citizens will clamor for additional lanes, but through Seattle that each additional mile of lane will cost at least $2.5 million and that is in the best case scenario, in the Seattle area that cost would be more like $4-5 million per lane mile.
(http://wadot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/88F371B&hellip😉
They increased throughput along a 7+ mile stretch without adding any more roadway with these signs. All with the added benefit of reducing accidents by 30 percent. Think of all the saved time (which is as good as money for many) that commuters will get from not having to wait for accidents to be cleared, it adds up.
Just do some research before you smash against projects, usually they have good reasons they are done.
And, Will in Seattle, I have looked at the other versions of the Viaduct replacement and none of them have exits to Downtown Seattle because building it new the space required to meet current standards for new construction does not exist.
So, which is it @16? Do they avoid the area or do they not? You’re making both assertions in the same comment. If there are reasons for people to come downtown and they need to park to do that, then they’ll pay whatever the current parking rate is in order to do so, whether because those needs can’t be met elsewhere, or simply because the cost of spending 45 minutes driving 15 or more miles in clogged freeway traffic to a suburban shopping mall doesn’t balance out against the comparatively smaller cost of spending ten minutes driving four miles downtown and paying to park.
Council promotes a citywide taxation district which allows for $80 car tabs and tolls on local roads, hmmm… mighty suspicious. Sounds like they want to pay for something pretty massive.