SEATTLE — Whether residents drive, take public transportation or ride a bicycle, Seattle’s Proposition No. 1has something for everybody in the city. The ballot measure is the largest property tax levy proposal in the city’s history, and some question if it is worth the cost.
Proposition 1 is seen by supporters as a chance for voters to make an unprecedented investment in safety through a $1.55 billion property tax levy. It pours money into road re-paving, bridge maintenance, bike lanes, buses and sidewalks.
Clara Cantor, a community organizer for Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, said Prop 1 is an opportunity voters should embrace.
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“It’s a really good compromise and balance of all the different and various needs in Seattle,” Cantor said. “A wide array of people are supporting this, and I think that’s indicative of the package itself.”
Others see the transportation levy as ineffective and unaffordable. Alex Pedersen, a former Seattle city council member, said Prop 1 lacks a fix-it-first approach and spreads money around to too many projects that won’t reduce traffic congestion.
“The priorities of the measure are completely upside down. It’s not focusing on the basics. It’s got a lot of bells and whistles that are expensive and disruptive,” Pedersen said. “They could do it in a much more economical fashion by just focusing on the basics like repaving our streets and building more sidewalks and fixing our bridges.”
The levy will repave 15 arterials, modernize traffic signals, add 350 blocks of new sidewalks, upgrade and repair several critical bridges, improve bus reliability, and broaden the city’s bicycle network. More than $400 million goes into street maintenance, which makes up the framework of the transportation system, with a focus on 15 of the city’s highest-traffic corridors.
Safety improvements will be woven into the design and Cantor said the changes will be transformational by forcing drivers to slow down.
“Even if you put up a sign that has a lower speed limit on it, if the street feels like you are supposed to go really fast, a lot of people are going to keep driving fast,” Cantor said. “This little section here, there have been over 200 crashes in the last five years just in this half mile or so.”
In terms of pedestrian safety, Pedersen said more sidewalks in more places would make more sense. He also calculates that the $221 million set aside for bridges falls short of the need.
“The bridge audit that we did shows we’ve got several bridges that need to be seismically upgraded, seismically retrofitted to protect from earthquakes,” Pedersen said. “Prop 1 does not do those things, so Prop 1 fails the test on safety as well.”
The proposed levy would collect 65 cents for every $100,000 of a home’s assessed value for the next eight years, which adds up to $520 a year for a median-priced, $ 800,000 home.
“People are going to see not only their property tax bills go up, but also their rent, and this applies to small businesses, people in apartments and assisted living facilities,” Pedersen said. “It’s just too expensive.”
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Cantor said the levy will help no matter what neighborhood people live in or how they choose to travel.
“If we’re able to build out a transportation network where people can get around without a car more easily and safely, that’s also about affordability,” Cantor said. As far as the toll on property taxes, Pedersen said funding half the cost through impact fees on developers rather than property taxes would be a more reasonable proposal.
Pedersen also pointed out that if voters reject Prop 1, the Seattle Department of Transportation still has money left over on a backlog of projects they can continue to work on, giving policymakers time to focus on the city’s immediate transportation needs and offer voters more choices in the next election.
“Break it into small, bite-sized pieces so voters can pick whether they want sidewalks and bridges and road repaving or have a separate measure for bikes, have a separate one for the other bells and whistles,” Pedersen said.
Cantor said the existing levy offers a good balance among many different priorities and with a growing city, people in Seattle have needs now that didn’t factor in a few decades ago.
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“The Safe Routes to School bucket has a promise to have sidewalks around every single one of our public schools, which would be huge, huge, huge,” Cantor said. “No matter where you live in Seattle, this is going to impact positively the way you get around.”
Maggie Volcheck got her ballot in early and is generally supportive of efforts to improve the city’s infrastructure, but decided against Prop 1.
“When you look at where the money is going to be allocated to in that new system, it didn’t seem like it was going where the highest needs were,” Volcheck said. David Skidmore is a regular user of public transit and said the city needs to do more to expand people’s options on how they get around. He said he also voted early and put his support behind Prop 1.
“Some money is better than no money,” Skidmore said. “You’re not going to fix everything, so yes, why wouldn’t we do it?”
Ballots have already been distributed and must be postmarked or placed in election drop boxes by Nov. 5.