$146M parks measure makes fall ballot

Despite a slowing economy, record gas prices and rising food costs, the Seattle City Council on Monday approved its second tax-increase proposal in eight days.

The council wants voters on Nov. 4 to consider passing a $146 million measure to expand and improve the city's parks and green spaces.

On July 14, the council put a $73 million measure on the same ballot that would fund basic repairs — such as a new heating and cooling system — for Pike Place Market.

On Thursday, the Sound Transit board is expected put a 15-year sales-tax increase on the ballot to raise $17.6 billion to expand light-rail service.

Mayor Greg Nickels thinks it's too much for voters to handle. The mayor supports the Pike Place and Sound Transit tax measures but has repeatedly said now is not the time for a new parks levy.

"We definitely think that would be overloading the ballot at this point," said Alex Fryer, Nickels' spokesman.

Some City Council members acknowledged that voters have economic worries but said expanding parks would be worth the money. The council kept the new proposal level with a parks levy that expires at the end this year.

"Some have suggested that because we are in difficult economic times that we should pull back, that we should hesitate," Councilman Tim Burgess said at Monday's meeting. "Some of the greatest public-works projects were done during tough economic times," he said, referring to federal works projects started during the Depression.

The Parks and Green Spaces levy would cost the owner of an average assessed home, valued at $479,100 this year, about $86 annually for six years or $18 per $100,000 assessed value. The current eight-year Pro Parks levy, which raised $198 million to expand and upgrade parks, expires at the end of this year.

When that expires, how much the average homeowner pays for voter-approved city levies will fall from $399 to about $310, which includes other measures voters passed for low-income housing, education, fire stations and street repairs.

If only the parks levy passes, that homeowner would pay $397 in 2009 for all voter-approved levies, which make up a portion of the total property-tax bill. If only the Pike Place Market levy passes, that homeowner would pay $354. If both pass, the 2009 bill would be $440.

The parks proposal includes $30 million to acquire new parks and green spaces throughout the city, $10 million to make safety improvements to playgrounds and $9 million to make seismic and other improvements to the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

It will also include $15 million to fund new community proposals. The rest of the money would fund improvements to neighborhood parks, new parks on top of covered reservoirs, trail extensions, forest and stream restoration, and community food gardens.

A council-appointed 28-member citizen committee came up with the package of parks projects over two months. This is the first levy proposal in recent history that did not come from the mayor, who usually builds the political campaign for property-tax increases, according to Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis.

Nickels proposed the $73 million, six-year Pike Place Market levy, which would add about $43 annually in property tax for the owner of an average assessed home.

And Nickels has been working to get the Sound Transit sales-tax package in front of voters in urban King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. It would add a nickel per $10 spent.

Council President Richard Conlin and Council members Burgess, Jan Drago, Jean Godden, Bruce Harrell, Nick Licata and Tom Rasmussen voted to add the parks measure to the ballot. Council members Richard McIver and Sally Clark were absent.

Drago expressed reservations about the parks levy but voted to add it to the ballot.

"My reservations are about the lack of prioritization of ballot titles," she said at Monday's meeting. In the past, she said, the city has worked with other jurisdictions to propose tax increases at different times. "Because of that lack of prioritization, I believe we will have three competing ballot issues."

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