Jolt
Afternoon Jolt: Mayor and Council Agree on Cost Overruns Language!
Today's winner: Mayor Mike McGinn.
The bickering between the city council and Mayor Mike McGinn over the city's 2011 legislative agenda---remember that?---culminated yesterday in an adopted agenda that included many of the provisions McGinn wanted (and that the council had originally resisted).
McGinn's biggest victory: Language specifically stating that the city, "supports the State having full responsibility for all costs associated with the State's portion of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program. ... The City also asks the State to ensure that the project's contingency fund is maintained at a level consistent with the recommendations of the Expert Review Panel. The City supports continued collaboration between WSDOT and SDOT to develop tolling and traffic management policies that meet revenue targets while minimizing and mitigating traffic diversion." The agenda also includes a request for transit funding as part of the viaduct replacement project.
It's not as strong as the language McGinn wanted---ideally, he'd like the state to remove language putting Seattle-area taxpayers on the hook for cost overruns (language the city attorney and attorney general say is unenforceable on its own) from state law and to get rid of the cap on how much the state will pay for the project.
Still, the new language is a shift in McGinn's direction---and an indication, perhaps, that the council and mayor can work together when they really try.
Other changes in the new agenda:
It eliminates a request that the state remove the current 6 percent cap on utility taxes on cable, gas, telephone, and electricity.
Its public safety priorities are much more specific, including higher penalties for vehicular homicide, a vulnerable roadway users' bill, tougher DUI laws, full funding for the Neighborhood Corrections Initiative; and changes to make the state's "three strikes" law less punitive for lower-level felonies.
It also asks the legislature to give the city the ability to regulate guns in public places (a ban on guns in Seattle parks was struck down earlier this year) and to continue to allow cities to use traffic safety cameras (something Tim Eyman has opposed).
It removes as a priority securing legislation that would assign vehicle license plates to car owners, not cars, allowing fines to follow the owner instead of the car.
It includes explicit support for preserving funding for Maternity Support Services, the Disability Lifeline, the Senior Services Act, and the Housing Trust Fund.
And it asks the legislature to get the ball rolling for tax increment financing, a scheme that allows local governments to sell bonds to make large infrastructure investments.
The bickering between the city council and Mayor Mike McGinn over the city's 2011 legislative agenda---remember that?---culminated yesterday in an adopted agenda that included many of the provisions McGinn wanted (and that the council had originally resisted).
McGinn's biggest victory: Language specifically stating that the city, "supports the State having full responsibility for all costs associated with the State's portion of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program. ... The City also asks the State to ensure that the project's contingency fund is maintained at a level consistent with the recommendations of the Expert Review Panel. The City supports continued collaboration between WSDOT and SDOT to develop tolling and traffic management policies that meet revenue targets while minimizing and mitigating traffic diversion." The agenda also includes a request for transit funding as part of the viaduct replacement project.
It's not as strong as the language McGinn wanted---ideally, he'd like the state to remove language putting Seattle-area taxpayers on the hook for cost overruns (language the city attorney and attorney general say is unenforceable on its own) from state law and to get rid of the cap on how much the state will pay for the project.
Still, the new language is a shift in McGinn's direction---and an indication, perhaps, that the council and mayor can work together when they really try.
Other changes in the new agenda:
It eliminates a request that the state remove the current 6 percent cap on utility taxes on cable, gas, telephone, and electricity.
Its public safety priorities are much more specific, including higher penalties for vehicular homicide, a vulnerable roadway users' bill, tougher DUI laws, full funding for the Neighborhood Corrections Initiative; and changes to make the state's "three strikes" law less punitive for lower-level felonies.
It also asks the legislature to give the city the ability to regulate guns in public places (a ban on guns in Seattle parks was struck down earlier this year) and to continue to allow cities to use traffic safety cameras (something Tim Eyman has opposed).
It removes as a priority securing legislation that would assign vehicle license plates to car owners, not cars, allowing fines to follow the owner instead of the car.
It includes explicit support for preserving funding for Maternity Support Services, the Disability Lifeline, the Senior Services Act, and the Housing Trust Fund.
And it asks the legislature to get the ball rolling for tax increment financing, a scheme that allows local governments to sell bonds to make large infrastructure investments.
