(Added: Seattle Channel video of the Sawant/Licata announcement)
Two Seattle City Councilmembers say they have a different idea for raising tax money to avoid Metro Transit cuts. Less than a week after Mayor Murray unveiled his sales-tax/car-tab-tax plan, Councilmembers Nick Licata and Kshama Sawant have just announced that they are asking city staff to draft a proposal to raise money through a commercial-parking tax and the return of the so-called “head tax,” repealed in 2009 amid claims it hampered job growth. Those taxes could be imposed by a council vote. (They’re among the alternatives listed in the online poll the West Seattle Transportation Coalition is running until tomorrow; parking tax is currently the top vote-getter, head tax second from last.) They would not fully replace Murray’s proposal, though, reports The Seattle Times (WSB partner); they would replace the proposed sales-tax increase, but a car-tab tax would still go to voters. Here’s the official Licata/Sawant announcement:

Councilmember Nick Licata and Councilmember Kshama Sawant and individuals representing working people, elderly, disabled, students, and people of color announced their plan today to address proposed cuts to Seattle Metro bus service. The proposed plan would use a Commercial Parking Tax increase and an Employer Head Tax to prevent devastating cuts to transit.

With the failure of Proposition 1 on April 22, King County Metro will implement the first of four planned rounds of bus service cuts. If all of these cuts happen, 16% of bus service, or 550,000 annual service hours, will disappear.

“If approved by Council, the Mayor’s proposal will go to the ballot in November, but not in time to prevent the first round of cuts. These initial cuts, and the funding that would kick in if ‘Plan C’ were approved, places a burden on poor and working people,” said Licata. “There are other options, and they are options that don’t expose our most vulnerable populations to more regressive taxation. The City Council has the ability to implement an Employer’s Head Tax and increase the commercial parking tax to fund public transportation,” Licata added. “If the City Council moves on this, we can prevent devastating cuts. I have asked our policy staff to research exactly how much revenue could be raised through these means, and to begin drafting legislation to introduce to the City Council.”

Read More

(WSB photos by Patrick Sand)
11:38 AM: The achievement gap among Seattle students is “unacceptable,” Mayor Ed Murray has just told a gathering at High Point Commons Park’s outdoor amphitheater, starting the official announcement of the Seattle Preschool Program. Materials provided to us and other media reps say they’ll go to voters with a four-year property-tax levy to raise $14.5 million a year, costing “the average homeowner” $3.63 a month. It will be “voluntary for providers and participants and will build toward serving 2,000 children in 100 classrooms by 2018.” Otherwise, “the moral cost is too high,” declared the mayor. More to come.

11:48 AM: “Every child in our city deserves a fair start … in life,” says Councilmember Tim Burgess, after being called by the mayor “the godfather” of the proposal. He says this would pay for full-day preschool. The announcement notes, “The program will have the ultimate goal of serving all eligible and interested 4-year-olds and all 3-year-olds from families making less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level in Seattle.” The classrooms in which they would be served would “be provided through a mixed-delivery system, with classrooms offered by Seattle Public Schools and community providers.” SPS Superintendent José Banda speaks shortly thereafter, saying the district looks forward to being “a partner” in this, and that he expects this will make Seattle “a model” for the rest of the country.

Asked about asking for yet another tax, the mayor acknowledges that “there’s a risk” but also says that if this helps bring a brighter future for more Seattle youth, “it’s going to save us money.”

A few more points:

*Free tuition for families earning less than 200% of federal poverty level

*Sliding scale for families earning more than that, “with at least some level of subsidy for all families”

*”Ongoing, independent evaluation” promised for a “feedback loop” to shape the program as it continues

12:02 PM: Event wrapping up; we have it on video and will add when uploaded. If you watch TV news, you’ll see something about it tonight, as it was a full-scale regional-media turnout. Next step? The council will have to vote by early August to get this on the November ballot. Details here.

ADDED: Our video of the entire event:

#34dems #wadems Congressman Jim McDermott addressing 34th District Dems #mcdermott4rep pic.twitter.com/hX21DxkEqP

— Marcee Stone (@bluecella) May 15, 2014

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

A visit from U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott was top-billed for Wednesday night’s meeting of our area’s largest political organization, the 34th (Legislative) District Democrats, but endorsements stole the show.

Atop that list, the 34th DDs gave their blessing to the August ballot measure that will seek to set up a Seattle Park District, though one pre-vote speaker warned that elected officials should “explain it better” before ballot-casting time arrives.

They also made endorsement decisions in judicial races, with some of the candidates on hand, even an appearance by newly appointed State Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu, who arrived at the meeting after her endorsement vote, and thanked the group:

Justice Mary Yu thanks the @34dems for their endorsement for her election to the State Supreme Court – pic.twitter.com/ZbiRlKeenH

— 34th Democrats (@34dems) May 15, 2014

Other endorsees included Congressmember McDermott, who spoke for a few minutes shortly after the meeting began. Introducing him, 34th DDs chair Marcee Stone-Vekich suggested everybody go look up the video clip of McDermott “swinging a fish in the halls of Congress” with Stephen Colbert. We found it:

Read More

6:09 PM: Want to talk with a city councilmember about how your money is spent – and will be spent? Now until 8 pm, you have a prime chance at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in North Delridge. Three councilmembers are here so far for the Public Safety/Civil Rights-focused workshop looking ahead to the 2015-2016 budget cycle – Nick Licata, who chairs the budget committee; Tim Burgess, who’s the president of the council; and Bruce Harrell, who chairs the public safety/civil rights/technology committee. Tom Rasmussen, the lone West Seattle-residing councilmember, is said to be en route. (Added: He arrived around 6:30.) The presentation hasn’t started yet, but we’re told it’s fairly short, and then it’s your turn to talk. More to come.

6:19 PM: City budget director Ben Noble is leading the presentation. He explains that right now the process of making the next budget plan is “in the executive phase” – departments send in their proposals this month and next, then the mayor reviews them over the summer, and a proposed budget goes to the council this fall. The current city budget is $4.4 billion; utilities and transportation spending comprise more than half that. But, Noble explains, most of the decisionmaking focuses on just $1 billion of that $4.4 billion – the “general fund.” More than half of that, in turn, goes to public safety – $576 million in the current cycle, says Noble. (Some of the information he’s presenting is on this two-page doc from the city website; we’re promised a copy of the slide deck, to come; ADDED – here it is.) Of that, a bit more than half – $289 million – goes to SPD. $175 million goes to SFD.

How much in the SPD budget goes to items related to the Department of Justice settlement? asked local community activist Pete Spalding. Hard to break that out, city staff said; Councilmember Harrell picked it up by saying, “You’ll hear different numbers,” noting that it’s led to the creation of new units, for example, such as Force Investigation (which was launched by now-Southwest Precinct commander Capt. Steve Wilske before his assignment to the local precinct, by the way).

6:43 PM: Questions so far include how budget items relate to, for example, SPD officers’ union and contract. Councilmember Harrell offered the example that the council might budget money for, say, body cameras, but if they weren’t written into the contract as a change of terms of employment, the money might sit there unspent, though “we’d find a way to use it,” Harrell added. West Seattle Be Prepared‘s Cindi Barker asked how much of the city budget goes toward preparedness; city staffers said they’d look it up. We have to move on to another meeting – but again, if you have questions/ideas, drop in at Youngstown, 4408 Delridge Way SW, until 8, and tell city reps about your public-safety-budget priorities (or send them via e-mail – lots of contact info on the right side of this page).

It’s been a recurring theme lately – the money that local government gets from you already, the money it’s asking for beyond that, and how that money is being and would be spent. Tomorrow night, West Seattle is the site of a meeting entirely about how the city spends your money. It’s the last in a round of city-budget workshops looking ahead to 2015-2016 spending; this one has a special focus on public-safety (police, fire) and civil-rights programs. So especially if you have an interest in how those programs are funded – this meeting’s for you. It’ll start with a short presentation and then move into conversation, with City Councilmembers there. Also planning to be there: Reps of the Seattle Privacy Coalition, whose spokesperson Jan Bultmann says is joining with the Human Rights Commission “to request funding for a formal privacy review process.” They’ve drafted a letter they plan to make available tomorrow night, spelling out why they think it’s time to have a process like that in place. All are welcome at tomorrow’s meeting, 6-8 pm at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (4408 Delridge Way SW). Want more details on the process? Go here.

The final results are in from the April 22nd vote on transit/roads-money Proposition 1:

No – 239,834 – 53.95%
Yes – 204,734 – 46.05%

The county says that’s a 39 percent turnout – a bit more than the predicted 38 percent. The final precinct-by-precinct breakout is out too (not mapped yet), earlier than expected. (Added 9 pm, a map by Oran Viriyincy, who gave us permission to use it – you’ll have to grab it and drag it to get West Seattle centered up, and from there you can zoom all the way in to your precinct – mouse over a precinct to see its vote results:)

(back to original report) Earlier breakouts showed Prop 1 would have won if it had been a Seattle-only vote, which has heartened supporters of what is now Seattle Initiative 118, a property-tax increase to raise money for Seattle bus routes. They have four weeks to gather enough signatures to get it onto the ballot, and today they announced a list of endorsements, including West Seattle’s two state House reps, Rep. Eileen Cody and Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon. If they get enough signatures, they’re aiming for the November ballot, which still could leave enough time to stave off planned bus cuts; for example, the four routes that Metro says it will “delete” in West Seattle are not proposed for that “deletion” until September of next year.

ADDED 7:21 PM: After The Stranger reported that Mayor Ed Murray asked a legislator to pull his support for I-118, the mayor’s office tweeted that Murray is getting ready to announce his own plan:

@dominicholden the mayor is putting forth his own proposal to save metro later this week.

— SEA Mayor's Office (@OfficeofMayor) May 7, 2014

Mayor Ed Murray has just gone public with his minimum-wage-increase proposal. The City Council will start its review on Monday; meantime, the full details are in this news release from the mayor’s office. The toplines:

Small businesses (businesses with fewer than 500 employees) will reach a $15 per hour minimum wage in seven years. Also established is a temporary compensation responsibility of $15 per hour to be met within the first five years, which can be achieved by combining employer-paid health care contributions, consumer-paid tips, and employer-paid wages.

Large businesses (businesses with 500 or more employees, either in Seattle or nationally) will reach $15 per hour in three years. The wages of employees who receive health care benefits will reach $15 per hour in four years.

The proposal will be heard by the council’s Select Committee on Minimum Wage & Income Inequality on Monday (May 5th) at 2:30 pm. It’s already drawn opposition from the group 15 Now, which (as reported here two weeks ago) proposes a city charter amendment phasing in $15 over three years, less than half the phase-in time of the mayor’s plan.

4:23 PM: “Yes” on Metro/roads-money Proposition 1 gained a bit of ground in the second round of results just released but “no” is still leading, now by nine percentage points. Current tally:

No – 224,441 votes, 54.51%
Yes – 187,324 votes, 45.49%

5:22 PM: County leaders have issued a news release saying that they’re now making plans for Metro cuts. County Executive Dow Constantine is quoted as saying, “We gave the voters a choice, and presented a proposal for saving Metro Transit and maintaining our roads. They have chosen a reduced level of service, and we will carry out the will of the voters. Tomorrow I will transmit legislation to the King County Council to reduce service by 550,000 hours and eliminate 72 bus routes.” The County Council’s Transportation, Economy and Environment committee will have public hearings on the plan before taking final action by the end of May. The draft version of the 550,000-hour reduction is in our election report from last night.

8:13 PM: Tonight’s results have just been made public for Proposition 1, the Metro/roads money measure, and it’s 55 percent no, 44 percent yes. More to come.

8:28 PM: This is the only vote count we’ll get tonight, with another to come tomorrow. The details, from the county website:

No – 200887 votes, 55.28%
Yes – 162508 votes, 44.72%

In addition to your thoughts in the comment section, we’re watching for other reaction around the net. Metro is a county service; from King County Executive Dow Constantine:

Dow Constantine "the voters have spoken" , not rejecting metro, rejecting this proposal to fund metro. pic.twitter.com/HvAKj1MsQf

— Alison Grande (@Alison_Grande) April 23, 2014

9:09 PM: So what happens now? The vote-counting usually takes a few weeks. If the measure is indeed defeated, the West Seattle-specific cut list would have to be reshuffled, because it included an extra cut that was averted two months ago, when the state agreed to continue providing “mitigation money” related to Highway 99 construction for at least another year. (And that was BEFORE Monday’s news that the Highway 99 tunneling machine won’t get moving again for almost a year.)

Metro did recently make a slight reduction in the number of service hours it said would be necessary if no new funding became available – 550,000 instead of 600,000; that draft revision included this route-by-route table.

It leaves more routes unchanged than the original proposal, and would be phased in between September 2014 and September 2015. Still on the list of routes to be eliminated: 21, 22, 37, 57. Route 113 was on the deletion list in November but is on the “would be unchanged” list now.

Four more hours to get your ballot in for the Proposition 1 (Metro/roads money) special election, and if you’re not mailing it, the ballot-dropoff vans in West Seattle and White Center will take it for free. Above, Taylor and Benjamin were on duty at the West Seattle Stadium van when we stopped by around noon; they already had received more than 150 ballots in two hours at that point. The other nearby van is in Greenbridge, 8th SW south of Roxbury. P.S. The other voting option is an accessible voting center – explained here; three locations – Renton, Bellevue, and Union Station downtown, also until 8 tonight. (Tonight’s round of results will be made public shortly after that, and we’ll have them here as soon as they’re available.)

A member of the group 15 Now, supporters of a higher minimum wage, filed a proposed city-charter amendment today. It would go to voters if they gather at least 30,000 valid signatures. Here’s how they summarize the proposal:

On Jan 1, 2015, the minimum wage for workers at big businesses will be raised to $15/hour and raised each year to adjust for inflation.

For small- and medium-sized businesses and non-profit organizations, the minimum wage will be phased in over three years starting with $11/hour on Jan 1, 2015.

Small- and medium-sized businesses are defined as having fewer than 250 Full Time Equivalents, the standard set by Seattle’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance.

No training wages, no lower wages for tipped workers, and no “total compensation.”

Increased worker protections against wage and tip theft.

The Seattle Times (WSB partner) reports that supporters aren’t planning to start gathering signatures until they see what the mayor’s income-inequality committee comes up with.