City Council transportation committee chairman Tom Rasmussen will propose a special, citywide taxing district, known as a  transportation benefits district, that would pay for transportation improvements citywide, including bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure improvements, at a meeting of the transportation committee tomorrow morning.

Rasmussen's proposal could---along with a proposed increase in the commercial parking tax to pay for early work on the downtown seawall replacement---conflict with competing proposals by Mayor Mike McGinn, who wants to increase the commercial parking tax and vehicle license fee to pay for a shortfall in the city transportation department's budget, and to pass a transportation benefits district to pay for bus, bike, and pedestrian improvements.

McGinn's office has not yet returned an email for comment on Rasmussen's proposal. However, Rasmussen said today that McGinn's proposal "wasn't much, as I recall. It was more a concept." Rasmussen says that if the council decides to support his proposal, the city will create a citizens' oversight committee to come up with the right mix of taxes---a vehicle license fee, a potential package of taxes to take to voters, a sales tax, or the kind of local-tolling proposal that became controversial for council member Mike O'Brien during his campaign last year---to pay for the improvements.

O'Brien, a frequent ally of McGinn, is in a meeting to confirm police chief John Diaz right now and wasn't available to comment on Rasmussen's proposal; however, his staff says he plans to sit in on the committee's meeting tomorrow morning.