Quote:
Originally Posted by 2oh1
Oh, but that would be too hard, so instead, the city wants to sneak an automatically escalating fee into our water bills. That's a copout.
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Our existing road funding is uninflated, which is part of the problem, as is the increasing fuel efficiency of vehicles. Another problem is that the roads designed less than 20 or 30 years ago lack the basic safety infrastructure that we need - sidewalks, safe and frequent pedestrian crossings, bike lanes, etc. We'd need a monumental increase in gas taxes and/or vehicle fees and parking fees to implement even a modest road maintenance and safety improvement program that arguably improves everyone's lot - residents and businesses. Water and sewer bills are collected directly by the City so would be the most efficient way to implement.
I take transit just about every day and drive barely 3,000 miles a year, but I'm happy to pay $12/month to have better, smoother roads, safer walking and biking facilities, and the jobs that support them.
Hales and Novick have been discussing this proposed fee for the last six months, so I'm not sure it's "come out of nowhere" as the media has portrayed it. That said, it would be nice to have some constructive dialogue about how to make the fee more palatable for businesses. Basing it on trip generation rates (which i think is what they have done) doesn't make sense when downtown businesses don't generate as many auto trips, already are self-taxed for a local street improvements, and rely on a much smaller footprint of streets. The Winco's on 122nd Ave, fast food restaurants with drive-thrus and businesses like it, on the other hand, should have the highest bills in my opinion, based on their complete reliance on a spread out street grid.
If I was mayor, I would've suggested implementing a rate of about 50% of what they are proposing, with a very public plan to seek a public vote for increasing the rate to reach a certain level of funding and indexing that rate to inflation. Simultaneously, creating an accountability webpage that tracks where the money is going and what's been done to improve efficiency.