A majority of Seattleites want to be taxed more for a better transportation system.
That’s saying a lot in a city with an incredibly high cost of living. Poll after poll shows voters will not only approve another transportation levy but are willing to pay more to address the biggest transportation issues facing Seattle. A poll conducted by Change Research found that twice as many respondents preferred a larger, $1.9 billion levy that invested in more sidewalks, safety, and transit projects over a smaller, $1.7 billion option. According to the City’s own polling by EMC research, the only argument against renewing the levy that caused a significant drop in support (at a whopping 23%) was that it did not go far enough in investing in walking, biking, transit, and the climate.
Voters understand what’s at stake. Our traffic fatalities are on the rise. Transportation in single-occupancy vehicles is the largest contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions. Missing and inaccessible sidewalks and unsafe crossings mean that people with disabilities, children, and senior citizens are disproportionately at risk when we use our streets to get where we need to go.
Next Tuesday, July 2, the Seattle City Council will vote on final amendments to our next transportation levy. It will fund 30% of Seattle’s transportation budget for the next eight years and have an outsize impact on the direction of our transportation system.
As chaotic as this council’s levy process has been the past two months, I daresay that all six of the council members who submitted amendments last week added at least one proposal that would make Seattle safer, more accessible, and more sustainable.
Council Member Rob Saka doubled the Mayor’s funding for new sidewalk construction. Council President Sara Nelson and Council Member Joy Hollingsworth added millions for repairing existing sidewalks. Council Member Cathy Moore increased funding for Vision Zero. Council Member Tammy Morales added money for community-based anti-displacement planning at the Graham and CID light rail stations, and Council Member Dan Strauss proposed finally finishing the missing link of the Burke-Gilman trail.
In other words, the council is proposing to fund programs Seattle desperately needs and that voters want and by all indications are willing to pay for. This should be a big, easy political win for a council still short on policy wins.
But instead of adding to the levy, council members are pitting essential programs against each other; funding sidewalk repair with cuts to new sidewalk construction, and cutting equity-based neighborhood projects for safe routes for kids to get to school. I’ve heard the council’s approach described as “peanut butter around the money,” but that is too cute of a description because at the other end of the budget line are real people experiencing real-world impacts. We shouldn’t have to choose between these vital needs when polling shows that voters will approve a levy that funds them all. Right now, the council is trading sidewalks, protected bike lanes, and street crossings, simply shifting the locations of inaccessible routes and future fatalities.
Council Member Morales has proposed an amendment that would increase the size of the levy to accommodate her colleagues’ proposed additions without cutting vital programs. Now is the time to show vocal support for a larger levy of $1.7 billion that invests in the safety and neighborhood projects we desperately need.
Rarely does a city’s funding needs align so closely with public opinion. The council needs to follow Morales’s lead and capitalize on this moment where voters are asking for a bigger levy to support walking, biking, and climate. Seattle is waiting.
Cecelia Black is a wheelchair user, community organizer for Disability Mobility Initiative at Disability Rights Washington, and serves as board president for Be:Seattle.
Increasing the cost of housing/renting by $1.7 Billion Dollars to shrink roads, cause congestion, and build unused bike lane is a very bad idea.
Rents will have to increase by $100-200/month per apartment to cost this $1.7 Billion.
This misguided idea will push people out of their home. It’s wrong!
So even though Seattle leadership has proven themselves completely inept at managing tax dollars to solve problems, think homelessness & drugs, people want to give even more of their hard earned money to the same group?
Ok.
I hope you get your increase.
In 2 or 3 years little to nothing will have changed, again, think homelessness and drugs, and you’ll be right back here saying there needs to be another tax increase.
So nobody is going out in Seattle because it’s too expensive (per another slog post this morning) but we want to tax ourselves to put in more infrastructure to get us to those places we can’t afford to go to?
@2 Rampant homelessness and attending drug consumption are systemic issues resulting from massive inequality and the dismantlement of the safety net (think of them as modern hoovervilles). They can be alleviated at the local level but only federal policy can address them successfully.
Seattle is on the right track when it comes to transportation. I didn’t vote for Harrell, but SDOT chief Spotts has done an excellent job. The problem is years of neglect and corrupt management dating back to the Scott Kubly/Ed Murray days. They lied about what could be done with the previous transportation proposal. That left Durkan (and a series of caretaker SDOT leaders) to handle things until Harrell and Spotts came along. Now they are getting shit done. There has been a big increase in high quality projects — they just need more money. A lot of these are maintenance in nature (fixing bridges) but there are also some very important improvements in transit, pedestrian and cycling mobility. I know some dipshits thinks these are just “niceties” but once the population gets big enough, it is the only way to get people around the city. You simply can’t move that many people by car. Furthermore, just about all of these projects improve safety, including the improvements to transit (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-11/cities-with-good-public-transit-have-fewer-road-fatalities).
Ask your city council member(s) to support a bigger package.
@5
If they can be alleviated locally then why haven’t they?
Seattle & King County have poured billions into the homeless problem with nothing to show for it. Still, people voted to triple the homeless levy because they are told by elected officials who haven’t accomplished anything that this next tax increase will do the trick.
You’ll toss around terms like inequality and pat yourself on the back for being ever so enlightened, but all you’ve done is relieved people of responsibility for their own decisions. No one is forced to start using drugs they choose to do so
What happened to the last levy of $930 million? I think we need an accounting first before doubling the cost for another levy. When did sidewalks become a major issue? I remember the tents all over the sidewalks three years ago. Not one person who now wants more money for this levy said or did anything about sidewalks that were blocked by tents.
I also remember a woman in a wheel chair had to go into the street to pass the tents. The Seattle City Council did nothing. Now Tammy cares? This effort is backed by MLK Labor and their door mats.
Nice headline photo. Cyclist crossing against the light.
The problem of course is that we will be taxed more but will not get the promised transportation system. The money will be funneled to all the usual hogs that feed at our corrupt trough. If only we could actually get something for our taxes. Imagine!
@7 what drives homelessness like housing cost, cost of living, etc has gotten much worse and support services haven’t really increased. If you do not vote for politicians who support the social safety net you are part of the problem.