Tackling Tacoma’s rampant road problems will require asking voters to raise their property taxes, along with issuing city utility revenue bonds and imposing a new city car tab fee to collectively raise about $144 million over the next six years.
And even that’s just a fraction of the money needed to deal with the city’s aging and failing streets.
Or so says a 13-member citizens committee formed last year to study how the city might deal with critically needed street transportation infrastructure repairs estimated to cost at least $800 million.
After more than four months of work, members of the “mobility stakeholder funding task force” last week detailed to the City Council their recommendations for addressing a pervasive problem they described as far more complex than merely patching potholes.
“Tacoma has a real serious, serious issue with their roads,” said Mark Martinez, a board member of the Pierce County Building and Construction Trades Council who chaired the committee. “… It’s almost at a crisis point.”
Chief among its recommendations, the task force noted that Tacoma must maintain existing transportation programs and funding, even in the face of the city’s current general fund budget crisis.
The committee also advised the council to pursue placing a levy lid lift measure on the August ballot that asks voters to raise Tacoma’s property tax rates to $3.60 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
The proposed tax hike, which seeks to raise about $72 million, would put the city’s property tax rate about a penny higher than where it was in 2001. But it would also amount to nearly a dollar hike from Tacoma’s property tax rate last year – $2.63 per $1,000 of valuation.
Next, the task force suggested the city issue a $60 million utility revenue bond package to coordinate replacement of aging sewer and stormwater systems with proposed roadway repairs.
Then, the task force recommends that the city impose a $20 car-tab fee to fund a new Transportation Benefit District and raise another $13.75 million.
“This is probably not going to be real popular with the taxpayers of Tacoma,” Martinez said of the recommendations. “However, we do have to acknowledge that if we want to improve our roads, we do have to pay for them.”
To win buy-in from voters, the task force advised the city to come up with a priority list detailing exactly how the money will be spent and ensuring that all of the newly raised revenues will go into a fund reserved solely for road improvements.
“That will go a long way to help a campaign to convince the voters that this is the right thing to do,” Martinez said.
Task force members added that the council should carry out the committee’s recommendations in the order suggested.
“We recommend that the lid lift (ballot measure) be the first one, because we believe that would be the largest component and also the most difficult to achieve,” member William King said. “If either the car tabs or utility bonds came first, that would severely handicap any private campaign to get the lid lift passed.”
Of all the recommendations, task force member Dave Seago called the new car tab fee a “no-brainer.”
“That’s the absolute minimum that you can do to generate some new revenue,” Seago, a retired News Tribune editorial page editor, told the council. “It’s a must in my view.”
Under state law, the council has authority to impose such a local car-tab fee up to $20. Imposing a fee higher than that would require voter approval. Noting that Seattle voters recently rejected a proposed $65 car-tab fee, task force members advised against pursuing a car-tab ballot measure that might compete against the levy lid lift proposal.
Asked by Councilman Marty Campbell if the committee also recommended taking a car-tab fee to the ballot this year, task force member Lois Stark responded:
“I’m not sure that’s a good strategy – to lay out too many options on one ballot.”
Seago and others added that to get a levy lid lift passed, the council must assess whether private interest groups are agreeable to funding a viable campaign.
“You shouldn’t put it on the ballot unless you feel there will be a good campaign,” he said. “There’s no point in putting it on the ballot and hoping it will pass.”
Councilman Ryan Mello asked interim City Manager Rey Arellano to find out what will be needed to put a measure on this year’s primary ballot. Council members also asked task force members to consider continuing their work by helping the city identify a priority list of road improvements that can be presented to voters as part of a levy lid lift campaign.
“We need to put a clear plan together to let voters know this money is going directly for streets and sidewalks and put a clear timeline on this before we go to them for a dime,” Mello said later. “I’m confident that after we make a case, the voters are going to support it.”
Lewis Kamb: 253-597-8542
lewis.kamb@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/politics
Twitter: @lewiskamb
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