City Hall
An August Transportation Ballot?
There's an outside chance it could happen, according to a discussion at this morning's transportation committee meeting, where council member Mike O'Brien brought up the possibility that the Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC-III) could accelerate its work to come up with a ballot proposal by May. (The council would need to send any ballot proposal to King County Elections by early June, or even earlier if the state moves the election to early August, as Secretary of State Sam Reed has proposed).
The group is charged with deciding how to spend a $20 vehicle license fee the council passed last year, and with putting together a proposal for a transportation ballot measure for some point in the future; that measure could include a combination of sales taxes, license fees, property taxes, and tolls on city streets.
"I'd love to hear early on if that's a possibility that you guys would push for, or if that's completely unrealistic," O'Brien said. Transportation committee chair Tom Rasmussen, sounding skeptical, noted that the council and mayor still haven't agreed on a timeline for putting capital projects and other measures like the families and education levy on the ballot.
"One of the things the council needs is information about when it would be feasible, as well as likely to be successful, to put something on the ballot," Rasmussen said. "One of the things that we need to reach agreement with the executive [McGinn] on is the timing and the sequencing of the things that we want to place on the ballot, because we do want them to succeed." In addition to the families and ed levy, this November's ballot could include a seawall bond measure, a library tax, and a tax proposal from the county.
If the transportation tax proposal isn't ready in time for the August primary, O'Brien worries that it could get pushed back to November 2012 or beyond, further delaying things like the transit and pedestrian master plans (not to mention basic street maintenance).
"I'm kind of anxious to move swiftly---my concern would be that there's a crowded ballot in November," O'Brien says. "We need to figure out really soon how we're going to fund some of these programs, and if it's determiend that there's not room on the ballot for two years, we need to figure out an alternative now" to fund the city's immediate transportation needs.
O'Brien said he doesn't see much likelihood that McGinn will get a light-rail measure on the ballot in November---in part because of the crowded ballot, and in part because the advisory group "might say it doesn't make sense right now," making it hard for the mayor, who supported the group's creation, to push for rail against their advice.
I asked O'Brien about the likelihood of tolling on city streets, which he proposed during the 2009 campaign. (His opponent Robert Rosencrantz instantly, and infamously, tried to turn "tolling all city streets" into an election issue.)
"I tend to view tolling more as a congestion tool than a revenue tool," O'Brien said. Noting that most streets in Seattle have many parallel alternatives, he said the only street that immediately comes to mind as a candidate for tolling is Lake Washington Blvd. through the Arboretum (in conjunction with tolling on 520).
The group is charged with deciding how to spend a $20 vehicle license fee the council passed last year, and with putting together a proposal for a transportation ballot measure for some point in the future; that measure could include a combination of sales taxes, license fees, property taxes, and tolls on city streets.
"I'd love to hear early on if that's a possibility that you guys would push for, or if that's completely unrealistic," O'Brien said. Transportation committee chair Tom Rasmussen, sounding skeptical, noted that the council and mayor still haven't agreed on a timeline for putting capital projects and other measures like the families and education levy on the ballot.
"One of the things the council needs is information about when it would be feasible, as well as likely to be successful, to put something on the ballot," Rasmussen said. "One of the things that we need to reach agreement with the executive [McGinn] on is the timing and the sequencing of the things that we want to place on the ballot, because we do want them to succeed." In addition to the families and ed levy, this November's ballot could include a seawall bond measure, a library tax, and a tax proposal from the county.
If the transportation tax proposal isn't ready in time for the August primary, O'Brien worries that it could get pushed back to November 2012 or beyond, further delaying things like the transit and pedestrian master plans (not to mention basic street maintenance).
"I'm kind of anxious to move swiftly---my concern would be that there's a crowded ballot in November," O'Brien says. "We need to figure out really soon how we're going to fund some of these programs, and if it's determiend that there's not room on the ballot for two years, we need to figure out an alternative now" to fund the city's immediate transportation needs.
O'Brien said he doesn't see much likelihood that McGinn will get a light-rail measure on the ballot in November---in part because of the crowded ballot, and in part because the advisory group "might say it doesn't make sense right now," making it hard for the mayor, who supported the group's creation, to push for rail against their advice.
I asked O'Brien about the likelihood of tolling on city streets, which he proposed during the 2009 campaign. (His opponent Robert Rosencrantz instantly, and infamously, tried to turn "tolling all city streets" into an election issue.)
"I tend to view tolling more as a congestion tool than a revenue tool," O'Brien said. Noting that most streets in Seattle have many parallel alternatives, he said the only street that immediately comes to mind as a candidate for tolling is Lake Washington Blvd. through the Arboretum (in conjunction with tolling on 520).
