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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

Seattle Road Maintenance Backlog Second Only to LA’s; Ballot Measure Could Be Below $80

City Hall   July 25, 2011 at 4:43 pm Erica C. Barnett

I’m down at the King County Courthouse waiting for testimony to start in advance of the county council’s vote on a proposed $20 vehicle-license fee to pay for Metro service for the next two years. Across the street on Fourth Ave., the city council is meeting to talk about a potential license fee of up to $80 to pay for transit improvements, road maintenance, and bike and pedestrian facilities.

In the hearing, council staffers showed the council data showing that the funding gap in Seattle—the amount of money needed for transportation projects that is not yet funded—is now around $600 million. Of West Coast cities, only LA’s funding gap was higher, at nearly $2 billion. Year over year, the Seattle Department of Transportation’s annual maintenance backlog has grown from $88 million to $142 million over the last five years.

Despite the size of the shortfall, council members seemed skeptical that putting an $80 vehicle license fee—the maximum fee the state legislature authorized the council to put on the ballot last year—up for a November vote. And two council members expressed concern that the fee would be regressive, since every car owner in the city would pay the same amount no matter what they make.

“It would seem that it might not be the year to go to the full $100,” budget chair Jean Godden said, referring to the fact that the $80 fee would come on top of the $20 fee the council has already approved. A $40 fee, Godden suggested, might be more reasonable than the full $80.

Council member Mike O’Brien added, “The regressivity of the fee is something that does concern me. I would be interested in exploring if there is a creative way to address” that issue.

The council has until August 16 to forward the vehicle license fee to the ballot. If approved by voters, it will pay for road maintenance, transit improvements, bike lanes, and sidewalks.


  • http://twitter.com/jeremyracca jeremy racca

    “ And two council members expressed concern that the fee would be regressive…”

    Which councilmember, other than O”brien, expressed these concerns? 

  • http://twitter.com/jeremyracca jeremy racca

    “ And two council members expressed concern that the fee would be regressive…”

    Which councilmember, other than O”brien, expressed these concerns? 

  • Verd1n

    Gentle Reader:  $20, $80, or a full $100 for “road maintenance, transit improvements, bike lanes and sidewalks” is  paltry peanuts at best.

    Wait till the full $1.87 billion AAA/aa 30-year bond to cover the Port of Seattle’s promise to the deep-bored tunnel hits all property owners and apartment renters, immediately followed by the 28% increase in City Light’s electric rates just to cover its #121 mill;ion cost for providing power to the DBT, coupled to the 25% increase in Seattle Public Utilities, mostly for covering DBT utility relocation costs arrives in the mail.

    Then you will have an idea of what an outrageous financial obligation the DBT trul;y is.

    For what you may ask?

    So a few CBD businesses can get a windfall at zero cost to themselves.

    Goddamit Godden.  Get a clue or at least a new brain. 

  • repete

    They need to ask for more fees because city hall hasn’t been doing its job, and probably never will.  It is way more fun for them to get reach arounds from unions, wring their hands over tent cities for out of towners, punish evil shoppers who use plastic bags, and of course kissing up to pro tunnel special interests. 

  • Shaggy

    Wouldn’t “car tax” or “automotive tax” be more accurate than “potential license fee”?  

  • http://manywordsforrain.blogspot.com/ Mr Baker

    The Metro request is a clear request, $20, or cut 17%.

    The city needs to do a better job of clearly communicating exactly what the people that are being taxed will pay for. It’s topics right now. It’s a muddy message, some of this, some of that.

  • 43-year Seattle Voter

    This ain’t the half of it. In addition to the $20 + $80 car tab fees, the City also proposes to renew the Bridging The Gap property tax levy when it expires next year. I’m all for the $20 increase for transit (it’s only for 2 years) but the $80 + BTG renewal begins to strain credulity. 

    Let’s have a thorough and dispassionate evaluation of the whole street maintenance/repair picture. We’ve voted for a ton of money for this, but they keep asking for more and more. Then there is the $20 million windfall from the sale of property to WSDOT, and did that go for street repavement? No, it is being divided into a multitude of tiny bits where it will have little visible result citywide. It’s almost like the City doesn’t want major street repavement across the board because it might lead voters to vote against the BTG renewal. I’ve voted against a tax increase maybe once in my 40+ voting years, but this Seattle situation shows signs of being seriously out of control. I may have to do it again.

  • gohuskies

    It sounds like Godden was the other. 

  • Melissa Westbrook

    It would seem that maintenance is low on a lot of lists.  Seattle Public Schools has a $500M+ maintenance backlog  on its facilities.  They started spending less on maintenance in the late ’70s and it continues today.  (They laid off some maintenance workers in this budget.)  There is no way to build their way out of this problem; they simply need to spend more on maintaining their 95+ buildings. 

    They have a large number of 50+ year old buildings that they continually throw money at to keep going but they have had to reopen mothballed buildings (read: really undermaintained) that now need millions to even use. 

    Any homeowner can tell you that if you put off basic maintenance, the problem will only get worse.  

  • Norge

    I just love the way City staffers pick cities to compare to Seattle in presentations to the City Council.  With the viaduct it was San Francisco, when the Embarcadero in SF was just an off ramp from the Oakland Bay Bridge and our viaduct is a state highway.  When comparing issues of homelessness and car campers, they compare Seattle with Eugene, OR and Santa Barbara.  When they talk about paid sick leave, they again compare us with San Francisco and now, they are comparing us to Los Angeles with a backlog of road repairs.  Los Angeles has a population of 3,792,621 and a land area of 468.67 square miiles.  Seattle has a population of 608,660 and a land area of 83.9 square miles.  When I used to work labor negotiations for firefighters and police officers throughout the state of California, we used comparably sized cities for negotiations — and could not compare San Francisco Firefighters to Hayward, CA Firefighters just because San Francisco FF made more money.