They call this tax restraint?

Recently I met a 60-year-old Seattle woman — call her Sal — whose water was shut off for two months.

She has owned her house for nearly 30 years. Until recently, she says, she's never missed a utility-bill payment. Never reneged on any bill of any kind.

But as in most stories like this, Sal was nearer the edge than she thought. She lost a job. Got in a car accident. Her food and energy costs soared.

For the first time, she had to choose. Not between this splurge or that. Between the basics.

"Should I pay the water bill, or pay my mortgage?" she wondered. "Should I pay for gas to look for a job, or pay the water bill? Should I pay for health insurance and medicine, or pay my water bill?"

She fell behind on her water bill by $400 — not all that much, but enough so the city eventually shut her off. How she got by for two months without water, she is too proud to say. After paying the $400 in installments, she got it turned on again last week.

I'm telling you about Sal because she is what popped into my head when I heard that our local elected officials have chosen this shaky economic moment to go as tax-crazy as an IRS agent on Ritalin.

Remember when 2008 dawned? There were murmurings this was the year local government might give us a break from a ceaseless stream of tax ballot measures.

King County Executive Ron Sims, hardly known to suffer from taxophobia, said this year was "a bad time to put out a tax" and "there has to be a relief period." The bad economy means government "must proceed with caution," seconded Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels.

City Council members reassured us that they, too, feel the pain of $4.50-a-gallon gas and $5 loaves of bread.

Here's what's coming at you as a result of all this caution and concern:

A $75 million Pike Place Market levy. A $146 million Seattle parks levy. A $17.6 billion, tri-county light-rail package. Roughly $300 a year, in total, for the average Seattleite.

Oh, and don't forget that 20-cents-per-grocery-bag Green Fee!

If this is proceeding with caution, what will "full-steam-ahead" look like?

Now to his credit, Sims isn't rolling out a bunch of new King County taxes this year. Of course he got his $220 million King County parks levy approved last year. Also last year the county imposed a flood tax, a special tax to pay for foot ferries and a mental-health-services sales tax.

Maybe they're taxed out.

How about you?

I'm not arguing against parks or the Market. Who would? Some are waiting in the wings to bash light rail, but not me. I like all these things.

But where's the restraint? There's no hint that government has any sense of limits. Any clue these times are not flush. Any nod to the need to choose, as Sal was forced to. Not between luxuries but necessities.

I suspect there are more in Seattle like Sal. Working, home-owning people who due to the cost of medicine or housing or food or energy are nearer the edge than they know.

It feels like this city is only nudging them closer to it.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.