This Washington
Latest Parking Tax Bill Would Exempt Hospitals as Well as UW
Learn to trust the Cola: As we predicted Tuesday, the state senate transportation committee has added nonprofit and public hospitals such as Providence and Swedish to legislation (co-sponsored by Seattle Sens. Ed Murray, D-43, Scott White, D-46, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-36, and Adam Kline, D-37) that would exempt the University of Washington from the city's commercial parking tax.
The new bill would also require that institutions that get the tax exemption spend at least 110 percent of the proceeds they make---that is, proceeds over and above the total amount they make from parking---from parking on a commute trip reduction program (like the University of Washington's UPass program, which the school funds with parking proceeds), and would cap the commercial parking tax cities can pass at 12.5 percent, the current tax level in Seattle. Cities could put an additional 2.5 percent parking tax on the ballot, but could not raise the tax above 15 percent. (Mayor Mike McGinn unsuccessfully proposed raising the parking tax to 17.5 percent last year.)
As we reported Tuesday, hospitals and other nonprofit institutions want in on the parking tax exemption, arguing that they shouldn't have to pay the parking tax if the UW gets a break. The UW says it shouldn’t have to pay the tax because it uses parking revenues to pay for its popular UPass bus-subsidy program; with higher taxes, the university says, people won’t use the UW’s parking lots—slashing funding for UPass, whose cost has risen dramatically over the last several years.
The UW exemption alone will cost the city an estimated $3 million a year (and $1.8 million for the rest of 2010); adding hospitals would mean exempting some of the city's largest parking garages from the tax, costing the city potentially millions more. "This bill is fine as it is and we don't need to expand the eligibility" for the tax break to hospitals, Sen. Curtis King (R-14) said in committee this afternoon.
The legislation passed, with the tax break for hospitals, and will move on to the senate's rules committee.
The new bill would also require that institutions that get the tax exemption spend at least 110 percent of the proceeds they make---that is, proceeds over and above the total amount they make from parking---from parking on a commute trip reduction program (like the University of Washington's UPass program, which the school funds with parking proceeds), and would cap the commercial parking tax cities can pass at 12.5 percent, the current tax level in Seattle. Cities could put an additional 2.5 percent parking tax on the ballot, but could not raise the tax above 15 percent. (Mayor Mike McGinn unsuccessfully proposed raising the parking tax to 17.5 percent last year.)
As we reported Tuesday, hospitals and other nonprofit institutions want in on the parking tax exemption, arguing that they shouldn't have to pay the parking tax if the UW gets a break. The UW says it shouldn’t have to pay the tax because it uses parking revenues to pay for its popular UPass bus-subsidy program; with higher taxes, the university says, people won’t use the UW’s parking lots—slashing funding for UPass, whose cost has risen dramatically over the last several years.
The UW exemption alone will cost the city an estimated $3 million a year (and $1.8 million for the rest of 2010); adding hospitals would mean exempting some of the city's largest parking garages from the tax, costing the city potentially millions more. "This bill is fine as it is and we don't need to expand the eligibility" for the tax break to hospitals, Sen. Curtis King (R-14) said in committee this afternoon.
The legislation passed, with the tax break for hospitals, and will move on to the senate's rules committee.
