$1.8 billion surprise: Nickels beefs up street plan

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels rolled out a supersized, $1.8 billion tax package Monday — a plan so big it shocked even those who support asking voters to fund the city's growing backlog of transportation projects.

The package, which includes new taxes on property, employers and parking, also riled some business leaders, who said the 20-year plan is more than the city can afford.

In arguing for his initiative, Nickels cited a lengthy list of needed work — repaving streets, fixing bridges, connecting bike paths, repainting crosswalks, even pruning trees along streets. Two decades of inadequate funding have exacerbated the problem, the mayor said.

Plan highlights


What it would cost

For a home assessed at $400,000, property taxes would increase $180 in the first year and continue rising up to 5 percent annually for six more years.

What we would get

• Improvements to Mercer Street and South Spokane Street Viaduct

• Work on King Street Station

• Rapid-transit bus lanes

• Pothole repairs

• Bridge repairs

• Bike lanes

• Sidewalk repairs

• Traffic signals

• Trail upgrades

• Trees and landscaping

"This is a comprehensive package that eliminates our maintenance backlog," Nickels said at a Monday news conference. "We will catch up and we will keep up."

Seattle has a reputation for paying for new parks, libraries and fire stations. But is asking for $1.8 billion too much, even for Seattle? The tax bill for voter-approved levies has gone up four-fold for the average Seattle home since 1996.

Even the mayor's citizens advisory committee expressed surprise after Nickels tripled its recommended transportation package, which could go before voters in November.

"It's a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be," said Ref Lindmark, co-chair of the committee.

Steve Leahy, president and chief executive of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, said, "This began with, 'We got some potholes, we gotta fix some things that fell apart.'

"Obviously that's gone from something modest, to something the citizens committee thought was fairly adequate, to being superseded by the mayor's proposal."

Leahy said he fears the city's package plus King County Executive Ron Sims' proposal for a transit tax will kill future voter support for funding the big regional projects — Sound Transit, the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the Highway 520 bridge.

Some City Council members on Monday seemed generally supportive of the mayor's proposal.

"The council will pass something because they recognize the severity of the problem. I don't see a way out of [relying on] the property tax" as the main source of funding for the package, Council President Nick Licata said.

Jan Drago, chairwoman of the council's transportation committee, praised the comprehensive reach of Nickels' package and its "lofty goals."

But when the council takes it up and decides whether to put it on the fall ballot, Drago said, it likely will make some changes — perhaps reducing its overall cost or shortening the duration of the property tax.

"The council has never done a levy longer than nine years," she noted, adding that she expects a transportation package will go to voters in November.

But Councilman Peter Steinbrueck sounded a sour note, suggesting the city's voters may be experiencing taxpayer fatigue: "I'm concerned about driving people right out of town with relentless tax revisions."

The mayor's property-tax proposal alone would raise more than $900 million over two decades.

The first-year tax rate of 45.1 cents per $1,000 of assessed value would increase the property tax on a $432,000 home by $195.

In the following six years, the property-tax levy would increase up to 5 percent annually.

"I thought the city's responsibility was to maintain itself. I thought that's what we paid taxes for," said Faye Garneau, executive director of the Aurora Merchants Association. "I guess I'm naive.

What Seattle gets for $1.8 billion


Some of the costs for these proposed projects are annual; others are one-time expenditures.

$13.5 million to rehabilitate 12 bridges and retrofit 13 bridges.

$6 million for traffic signs, signals and safety. Includes replacing 17,000 street signs, restriping 5,000 crosswalks every 5.5 years, replacing 70,000 feet of guardrails.

$2.5 million for sidewalks, trails, walkways and stairways. Includes repairing three miles of sidewalks per year.

$105 million: includes creating rapid-transit bus lanes; $30 million for the South Spokane Street Viaduct; $20 million to build a bridge on South Lander Street over the railroad tracks; $25 million for King Street Station; and $30 million to improve Mercer Street.

$5.7 million for bikes and pedestrian safety. Installs 80 pedestrian-friendly "countdown" signals a year. Completes 6.5 miles of trails on Burke Gilman, Chief Sealth, Mountain-to-Sound and other trails, and provides new bike lanes.

$2 million for trees and landscaping. Plants 2,000 new street trees per year.

$1.9 million for neighborhood services. Increases street sweeping to twice a month in business district and twice a year in residential neighborhoods. Increases mowing on medians and shoulders to twice a year. Ensures 48-hour removal of graffiti from signs.

Source: city of Seattle

"If this proposal should pass, then all of the rents are going to go up because the property owners aren't going to pay the tax out of their profits. They're going to raise rents on apartments, on retail locations," Garneau said. "It's a vicious cycle of inflation we start simply because we're not spending our tax dollars properly."

Two new business taxes proposed by the mayor could be enacted by the City Council without a public vote.

The first is a 10-percent tax on parking at commercial lots across the city.

The second is an employer tax. The mayor is proposing charging employers $25 a year for each full-time employee who works in Seattle. If a business subsidized transit options, such as offering bus passes, it would not be charged the tax for those employees who ride the bus.

Kate Joncas, president of the Downtown Seattle Association, said that overall, the mayor's proposal appeared overly burdensome to downtown workers and employers.

"It really doesn't seem fair that downtown should shoulder a big burden for fixing potholes all over the city. It's just very discouraging," Joncas said.

The parking tax is a turnaround for the mayor, who rejected a similar one proposed in 2002.

Nickels responded to the criticism, saying, "I opposed it then because we were at the front end of the longest, deepest recession in a generation."

Nickels' proposal came after his advisory committee held several public open houses to talk about the need for better transportation funding.

The mayor said state funding has fallen — even though the city will receive $2.8 billion from last year's $8.5 billion gas package — and the city's general fund cannot keep up with repairs.

Seattle voters rejected a previous attempt to raise taxes to fix roads in 1997. That bond issue failed to get 60 percent of the vote to pass — but it was supported by 57 percent of voters. A levy needs only 50 percent of the vote.

This proposal covers a wide range of maintenance projects, from repaving roads to sweeping streets. The money would be used to pay for a portion of four major projects, including work on the South Spokane Street Viaduct, a bridge on South Lander Street, King Street Station and the widening of Mercer Street.

Nickels said his proposal should complement County Executive Sims' "Transit Now" proposal to offer more Metro buses countywide. Sims' proposal is also expected to appear on the November ballot.

Times staff reporters Mike Lindblom and Bob Young contributed to this report.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com