August 11

$80 – more or less – added to your car tab fee to back transit, street repairs, bikes and pedestrians?

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19  comments

Update: David Miller of the Maple Leaf Community Council is on the video (at the bottom of the post) at 48 minutes 48 seconds. Donna Hartmann-Miller, also on the council executive committee, follows him.

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We’ve had a couple of readers this week wonder about the additional car license fees that voters may face this fall.

1) Andrea wrote on Wednesday: “I saw a flier posted at the 72/73 bus stop on 15th Avenue Northeast at Northeast 75th Street today advocating for the $20 Congestion Relief Charge that needs to be adopted by King County Council in order to not lose our 72 and 73 buses.

“According to the flier, the final decision is to be made on Monday, and this website was named: www.stopbuscuts.com.”

The King County Council is now supposed to vote on that $20-per-car tax hike for buses on Aug. 15, according to our new partners The Seattle Times. That’s the day before the deadline to put the issue on the November ballot.  We last reported on the issue, which could also affect routes 67 and 41, in July.

2) Today Louise took note of a story The Times published last night on a Seattle City Council board hearing on a different tax voters might be considering this fall.

That one relates to a fee of up to $80 per car that the City Council might put on the fall ballot, as Mayor Mike McGinn strongly urges.

Louise, a Lake City resident, quotes the Times story on last night’s public hearing: “The Cascade Bicycle Club also urged support of an $80 license fee and collected more than 800 signatures online.

“Some Maple Leaf residents urged the council to spend more on sidewalks so people could get safely to transit and to their local schools and shops.”

She says:

I’d like to get in touch with the Maple Leaf residents mentioned above who favor spending more on sidewalks. If the Cascade Bicycle Club can gather 800 signatures online to promote more bike lanes, those of us who favor sidewalks for pedestrians should be able to collect at least that many.

Want to watch the full (two-hour) hearing from Wednesday night’s meeting of the council’s Seattle Transportation Benefit District Board Public Hearing? Here’s a link. The video is below.

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Sara W

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  1. Sidewalks are overrated and not needed in the majority of our N Sea neighborhoods. Roosevelt Ave, yes, the West-East streets between 5th and 15th, not so much. 40 years here, and there still isn’t a strong argument for sidewalks. The few cars travelling the side roads are very easy to avoid.

    More pot hole fixing. More street sweeping. The side of the road is littered with gravel and other debris. I use more of the travel lane when biking because of the debris.

  2. Thanks David, jusy took the survey. Very sad that pedestrians once again are not considered. It also seemed the bar in the survey would go no lower than maintain what we already have. I would have liked more options.

  3. I think we should all give up our cars, trucks, SUV’s, motorcycles and bike, take transit and/or walk everywhere–including the mayor and city council. I wonder where the City would get the money for road maintenance?

  4. I think bikes should pay for their own lanes. I have only seen a handful using the lanes on Roosvelt. They use our sidewalks, go from being peds to vehicles at will. I never know what they are going to do next. They need to have some rules of the road and be accountable.

  5. By the way, I agree that making this a car-tab fee seems dumb. I think it should be paid for out of the general fund or a levy, but I would rather it get approved as a car-tab fee than not at all.

    You talk of this entitlement issue, but my point is cyclists do contribute more than a little already, through our property taxes, which are the big funders of roads, not gas taxes or tabs. If anything I would argue that those cyclists who do not own cars (the small portion of them) grossly overpay already for the little bit of infrastructure dedicated to them.

  6. I dunno, I get that bike riders also have cars. The vast amount of transit users also have cars. So the point is? I pay for a small utility trailer I use maybe once a year, it’s only about $25 but how would a bike tab fee be different? If not that then maybe a fee at the time of bike purchase?
    It really smacks of entitlement to me that bike riders don’t feel a need to contribute a little.
    Identifying and maintaining bike stuff cost money, Think big picture like bike racks,maps,salaries,etc,

  7. The argument that cyclists don’t pay their way is bogus even if you ignore the fact most cyclists still pay car-tabs and gas tax.

    Here is an analysis of Seattle: http://publicola.com/2010/08/31/we-all-pay-for-the-roads/

    If you don’t feel like reading, I’ll try to summarize:
    For paving projects:
    Bonds and property tax: 83% of budget
    Parking tax: 16%
    Gas tax: 1.5%

    As for a special fee only for bikes, from what I gather the cost of administering a bike registration program outweigh the trivial amount you can collect, given the relative registration fee a bike would pay compared to a car. I don’t have any reference for that one, so take it for what it is worth.

  8. The vast, vast, vast! majority of bike riders also have cars that are registered and pay all the same fees as car drivers. Perhaps a bike tab fee for that miniscule handful that does not also have a car to placate the antibiker conspiracy-theorists who think that bikers are modern-day Lamias and kitten torturers. That way the city can get the extra $500 it is due every year from such non-car-owners.

    The difference between the biker and the car driver is that, while the biker also typically owns a car, he or she puts way less wear and tear on the city’s infrastructure by choosing the bike at times instead of driving the car – to say nothing of the lower pollution impact. But the bikers do still own and use cars in most cases, so it’s not like they’re not paying their fair share already. Or torturing kittens.

    That said, sidewalks are the way to go. Good on the community council for its vote.

    The city has been giving Maple Leaf lip service on sidewalks for 60 years now or more. If the city council had districts, then we’d have a sympathetic ear on the city council. But no, and no.

  9. I am tired of the war against cars in this city!! I am tired of the bicycling lobby and our mayor who seeks to limit the use of our cars.

    I do believe cyclists should be kept safe on the roads. However, if they want it, then a special bike fee ought to be charged and they ought to shoulder a good portion of their costs. This bleeding of the taxpayer and driver has to be stopped. This proposed new tab fee is our local progressive government gone amuck.

    I do like the idea of sidewalks as many parts of North Seattle are lacking. The bicyclists want all of these goodies? Let the Cascade Bicycle Club raise the dough.

  10. The Maple Leaf Community Council Executive Board voted to not support the proposed City of Seattle car tab fee *unless* the legislation significantly increased funding for sidewalks and specifically created line-item funding for new sidewalks. I testified to this effect at the meeting last night.

    The Bridging the Gap levy was sold to voters as a way to build sidewalks. However, 2010 saw just 15 block *faces* built with only 10 planned for 2011. This compares to hundreds of block faces that need to be built. This is why we asked that funds be specifically set aside for sidewalk building.

    With some $600 million in sidewalk construction needed in Seattle, no one funding source will solve the problem. However, we have a unique opportunity to get more sidewalks built from the car tab proposal by piggybacking on utility and drainage work already planned by SPU.

    When the City asks voters for transportation-specific funds, however, we should make sure those funds actually make a dent in the problem. When determining allocation of funds between competing interests, the City should recognize virtually everyone in Seattle is a pedestrian — a user group that dwarfs all others.

    The consistent message I get from Maple Leaf residents is sidewalks and transit, sidewalks and transit. Our efforts on the Seattle car tab fee and making Maple Leaf residents aware of the threatened loss of nearly all our bus routes via emails, General Meetings, and the Summer Social are how we try to match our actions with that message.

    I think doing signatures is a fabulous idea. I also urge everyone to sign up for the Maple Leaf Community Council secure email system at:

    http://www.mapleleafcommunity.org/mail_list_join.html

    David Miller
    Chair, Land Use & Transportation Subcommittee
    Maple Leaf Community Council

  11. I’m a fan of bike lanes, sidewalks and transit, but we don’t need additional regressive taxes/fees… Households making less than $200K/yr (the wide majority of us) already pay more than our share…

  12. Is it just me that is not impressed the bike riders and transit users feel folks other than themself (car users) should pay for their transit and bike lanes? My bike riding days are long gone and transit just doesn’t work for the errands I run like grocery shopping.
    I would be happy to throw some money in the pot for sidewalks which is something we all can use.

  13. What happened to “Bridging the Gap”? Apparently, the Gap got bigger. What a shock.

    There is no end to the demand for the government to do, build or fix things. However, there is a limit to the amount that working people can pay. Once we add $20, $40,$60 or $100 to the Car Tab fees, somebody will think of some other worthy cause and ask that those Car Tab fees be raised (again) to $120 or $140 or $200 or more. All for a worthy cause, of course.

    “Bridging the Gap” has provided SDOT with a lot of money, paid for by all property owners. Perhaps somebody should be looking at how that money is being spent.

  14. I think it is time for bike tabs to help pay for these bike lanes. I am for more sidewalks. So if this and the Metro King county $20 passes it will be a total of $100 for Seattle residents. I am inclined to vote for the $20 but not the $80. If both end up on the ballot, I foresee neither passing.

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