Slow down on plans for Seattle transportation taxing district

FEW Seattleites doubt the need for more investment in transportation in many areas of the city. But City Council talk of a new transportation taxing district that could prompt a slew of tax requests elicits one response: Are you kidding?

Councilmember Tom Rasmussen gets ahead of himself by touting a transportation district that could lead to a bevy of taxes to support a list of projects. Seattle voters are often very generous with tax dollars.

Indeed, they were in 2006 when asked to support Mayor Greg Nickels' "Bridging the Gap," the largest property tax in city history, a package that did things like: bike lanes, sidewalks, road signs, traffic lights, buses, street trees, stairways, neighborhood traffic circles and some basic maintenance the city could not otherwise afford. Nickels urged citizens to support the package to improve its roads and invest in pedestrian safety. They did.

Flash forward four years and the desire again is for more revenue for sidewalks, bike and pedestrian improvements and road maintenance.

"What I am hearing from Lake City to Fauntleroy is that voters will pay more for sidewalks, crosswalks and safety improvement," said Rasmussen. He added that he understood, "We also have to prioritize and we have to put some projects on hold."

The emphasis should be on prioritizing and delaying some projects. We understand retail sales, real-estate excise and gas-tax revenues are coming in slower than expected. We also understand a growing city has a long list of needs.

But this is not the time to lump so many expensive endeavors into a basket and create a new transportation district. The city is planning to raise commercial parking taxes to continue planning and design of the sea wall replacement.

The sea wall is a necessity, but the parking tax may be harmful to economic recovery.

Slow down. Seattle has done far less budget cutting and prioritizing than either the state or King County. Part of that is a more-sober attitude toward taxes.