Seattle City Council sends $1.55B transportation tax to the ballot
Seattle’s got a significant transportation to-do list. Aging bridges need maintenance. The bike lane network is far from complete. A quarter of the city’s streets are missing sidewalks and many existing sidewalks need repair. And anyone who’s driven in Seattle has felt the car-rattling potholes that litter the city.
In November voters will choose whether to continue taxing themselves to keep checking items off that to-do list over the next eight years. City leaders are asking Seattleites to pass a $1.55 billion transportation levy. The current $930 million transportation levy has paid for about 30% of the Seattle Department of Transportation’s budget since it passed in 2015.
The Seattle City Council took its final step on the levy Tuesday when it voted unanimously to put the measure on November’s ballot. If passed, the owner of a median-valued Seattle home — currently a little over $800,000 — would pay about $499 a year in property taxes for transportation projects. Landlords typically pass along property tax costs to renters as well.
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The levy would provide $403 million for street maintenance and modernization; $221 million for bridge repair and safety; $193 million for pedestrian safety; $160.5 million for Vision Zero, school and neighborhood safety programs; $151 for bus lanes and transit corridor improvements; $113.5 million for bike projects and $100 million for new traffic signals and signal maintenance.
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https://crosscut.com/politics/2024/07/seattle-city-council-sends-155b-transportation-tax-ballot