In fact, it’s so secret that Mayor Ed Murray doesn’t even know it yet! But if he really wants to save Seattle from devastating Metro bus service cuts, and he really wants avoid putting a transit-oriented property tax initiative on the ballot this fall, here’s all he and his allies on the city council need to do: restore the head tax and and raise the commercial parking tax.
Both can be done councilmanically—that is, without being referred to voters—and combined, the two taxes could raise up to $50 million, almost twice that under the proposed property tax initiative. Just push a transit package through the council now, and there’s no need to send the initiative to the ballot. Simple!
That said, I sure don’t buy the argument that there isn’t available levy capacity to fund both transit and universal preschool, and I caution both transit and preschool supporters that this is a rhetorically dangerous argument to push.
Apparently Murray is pretty serious about cutting off the funding tap for this (your link):
In other “Plan C” news: State Representative Eileen Cody withdrew her endorsement from Keep Seattle Moving in the space of a single day yesterday, much like State Senator Adam Kline.
I’m wondering how many more sentences I have to write not to have this deleted so I’ll just re-iterate that two state senators have pulled their support for the Plan C initiative, perhaps under some pressure from the mayor.
For the record, I’m a huge fan of universal preschool and would love to have preschool and transit on the same ballot! I believe they would bolster each other.
@1 “perhaps”? Isn’t this confirmed in The Stranger?
Isn’t the argument really that when it comes to the ballot, the more property tax levies there are, the reduced chance that voters will sign on to an advocates preferred issue? Off the top of my head, we’ll potential have
-parks
-pre-K
-transit
-O’Brien’s public financing
Only one of those is favored by the democratic donor class as “reasonable”.
I hope Ben Schiendelman moves ahead with the property tax levy to fund metro. Plan E.D. is a limp dick attempt by Ed to steal the glory from McGinn and Ben.
@ 2 “perhaps”? Isn’t this confirmed in The Stranger?
Lately I’ve been reading that The Stranger has slipped a little. YMMV.
Someone needs to point out the stupidity of funding universal Pre-K for low income students, while at the same time removing the transit that will make it possible for their parents to take them to class.
I love how transit always comes at the expense of the car/truck etc.. drivers. Seattles motto should be “Seattle, doing our best to drive you away”
Here is my plan to “Save” Metro: http://i.imgur.com/4OdAg4z.png
Can’t wait for that to happen
Maybe his secret plan will be the unveiling of the Move Seattle Strategy, which he has yet to announce.
Obviously this is all quoted directly form murray4mayor.com Its filled with references to securing stable funding, yet here we are, 6 months later, with no solid plan from him.
I think that an effective way of getting more money would be to build special buffered ‘alcoholic drivers lanes’. You charge a special fee for using the, let’s call it, Alki Lane, and any accidents that occur are no-fault.
I envision strong usage of such a lane. A winning slogan could be: “Don’t take the happy out of bein’ wacky! Be safe! Use the Alki Lane.”
It’s really amazing what an absolute disaster Murray has proven to be. He left me cold during the campaign but honestly I didn’t care that he won. I didn’t think he would be much different from McGinn.
But holy crap, what a thin skinned, scheming, two faced piece of shit. He truly does not care one whit for this city. It’s all about Ed.
It’s obvious that he only reason he’s trying to stop plan C is that it isn’t his idea. Not once has he shown an ounce of leadership. He followed Sawant and the 15NOW activists and then took credit. He fucked up police reform just to get rid of anyone tainted by contact with McGinn. Now he’s trying to stop transit leaders because he think it makes him look bad to allow some one from outside his minuscule inner circle offer solutions.
And McGinn was the divisive one?
Geeze, the unemployed ex-McGinn staffers are cranky today.
Godwin, baby, accusing your opponent of being a shill is a weak form of argument. Doing so literally makes you worse than Hitler.
Raising the neighborhood parking permit fee wouldn’t be a bad idea either. From SDOT site, it says $65 fee for 2-year cycle. That rate could be changed to an annual basis, in addition to being increased. http://www.seattle.gov/transpo.....z_cost.htm
I’m OK with an increase on the tax of parking lots, but a head tax is much worse than a property tax increase. You basically make it more expensive for people to hire people, just as every employee gets a raise (the increase in the minimum wage will have a “trickle up” effect). A head tax is just one more reason not to hire someone in Seattle.
If we’re lucky Murray’s plan will use a payroll tax. Corporations here should have some skin in the transit game, and now they do not.