On August 27th, the Chamber Board of Directors voted to endorse Tacoma City Council's Propositions 3 and 4.
The text of the resolution is below:
SUBJECT:
TACOMA PROPOSITION 3: Concerning
a property tax levy rate increase and utility gross earnings tax increase to
fund street improvements
AND
TACOMA TRANSPORTATION BENEFIT DISTRICT PROPOSITION 4: Concerning the
imposition of a sales tax to fund street improvements
POLICY: YES
ON BOTH PROPOSITIONS 3 & 4
BACKGROUND: In 2013, the City of
Tacoma placed a proposition to the voters to add an additional 2% to the
existing utility gross earnings tax in order to fund street improvements. The Chamber opposed the measure on several
grounds. Some of these included concerns
about prioritization of existing dollars, task force/commission processes, and
expecting a handful of businesses to pay the bulk of the taxes despite most of
the improvements going towards residential roads. A majority of voters agreed with the Chamber
that this was not an appropriate tax.
Since 2013, the Chamber has worked
with community stakeholders, including electeds and staff at the City of
Tacoma, to evaluate alternative funding and improvement plans. While no tax is an ideal scenario, the
proposed package successful spreads the tax burden to all parties and users
throughout the area while setting a 10-year sunset on the entire package. The two propositions combine for $175M in new
revenue. When added to new matching
funds from the general fund, existing street funding revenues and new grant
matches, the total package is $425M.
|
City Funding Source
|
10 Year Revenues
|
|
New Sales Tax
(+0.1%) (Prop 4)
|
$45 M
|
|
New Utility Gross
Earnings Tax (+1.5%) (Prop 3)
|
$90 M
|
|
New Levy Lid Lift
(+$0.2 per $1,000AV) (Prop 3)
|
$40 M
|
|
New Additional
General Fund Support (Council Budget)
|
$30 M
|
|
Existing Revenues
($20 Tab, 2% UGET)
|
$100 M
|
|
City Funding
|
$305 M
|
|
Grant Matching Funds
|
$120 M
|
|
TOTAL FUNDING
|
$425 M
|
This funding would then be spent on
residential streets (67%), arterials & freight access (18%), and walking
and biking infrastructure (15%). This
work would pave 167 blocks of gravel streets, resurface 2,100 blocks of failed
and poor streets, and provide sufficient maintenance for all excellent, good,
and fair residential streets, totaling another 4,211 blocks. In addition it
would provide funding for key freight mobility connection in the Port of Tacoma
and multimodal facilities like an improved Schuster Parkway and Prairie Line
Trail.
The residents of Tacoma have
consistently ranked the condition of the streets as a number one priority, but
despite several options on the ballot, have to choose to increase taxes to pay
for the street repairs. It is unclear
the level of support these measures will need to be successful at the ballot
box.
While the Chamber supports these
proposals to improve streets throughout Tacoma, we will continue to encourage
the City to look for additional efficiencies in general operations. With an annual general fund budget of $200M,
saving just 1% would allow an additional $20M to be spent on roads over
10-years. To this end, we hope that this
City will continue to focus on job creation in the private sector by hiring
private contractors to complete the work rather than increasing internal staff.
IMPLEMENTATION: With approval of a policy, the Chamber will
utilize is communications tools for advocacy.
