The case for and against Seattle’s largest-ever transportation levy

Supporters argue the $1.55B property tax will improve city streets and safety for all modes, while opponents say it’s far too expensive.

a red car blurs by a person sitting at a bus stop

A person waits at a bus stop on the corner of Rainier Avenue South and South Walden Street on Tuesday, March 14, 2023. Seattleites will vote on a $1.55 billion transportation levy in November. (Amanda Snyder/Cascade PBS)

On November 5, voters will decide whether to approve Seattle’s $1.55 billion transportation levy. If passed, the new levy would be the largest in the city’s history and would be collected for eight years. 

The property tax helps pay for a wide variety of Seattle Department of Transportation projects, including street repaving, bridge repair, bike and bus lanes, signal modernization and sidewalk construction.  

Seattle has relied on transportation levies for the past 18 years. The most recent levy — the nine-year, $930 million Levy to Move Seattle — is set to expire at the end of 2024.  

The owner of a median-valued Seattle home — currently a little over $800,000 — would pay about $500 a year in property taxes to the new levy. That's up from about $276 per year that the median homeowner pays under the outgoing levy. Landlords typically pass along property tax costs to renters as well.   

Supporters argue the levy is a compromise package that will serve all road users in the city while making important safety improvements to some of Seattle’s most dangerous streets. The measure has been endorsed by Mayor Bruce Harrell and the full City Council, transportation advocacy groups, disability rights groups, unions, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and more.  

Opponents say the levy is too expensive and will hurt middle-class homeowners and renters while not doing enough to address Seattle’s transportation needs. Former Seattle City Councilmembers Alex Pedersen and Margaret Pageler and Latino Civic Alliance president Nina Martinez are leading the opposition effort.  

Statewide Voter Guide

What the levy pays for

Transportation levies pay for about 30% of the Seattle Department of Transportation’s budget for “core services and new projects,” according to the department.  

Over its eight years, the levy would provide $403 million for street maintenance and modernization; $221 million for bridge repair and safety; $193 million for pedestrian safety; $160.5 million for Vision Zero, school and neighborhood safety programs; $151 million for bus lanes and transit corridor improvements; $113.5 million for bike projects and $100 million for new traffic signals and signal maintenance.   

In addition, it would generate $69 million for transportation-related climate initiatives and tree planting; $66.5 million to “activate” neighborhood public spaces and business districts; $45 million for freight mobility and $7.5 million for oversight.   

The case for the levy 

“Seattle’s transportation needs are great, and this is a levy that meets those needs,” said Kirk Hovenkotter, Transportation Choices Coalition executive director. “For 18 years Seattle voters have invested in our streets, trails and transit. And this is going to continue to build off it.” 

Hovenkotter pointed to the $111 million the levy would spend on new sidewalk construction and $34 million for sidewalk repair — a major problem in a city with more than 10,000 blocks that are missing sidewalks. He also celebrated the levy’s plans for transportation equity projects, speeding up bus service, road and bridge repair and new bike lanes.  

Clara Cantor, a community organizer with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, said she’s most excited about the levy’s investments in street safety. Both the city and state have lost ground in recent years on their Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries.  

Cantor said this would be the first time the levy calls out specific Vision Zero projects. The $70 million bucket would be used to redesign some of the city’s most dangerous streets, including Aurora Avenue, Rainier Avenue, MLK Jr Way, Fourth Avenue South in SODO and Lake City Way.  

“It is so exciting; the idea that we could have safety projects on all five of those streets in eight years and it will save so many lives,” said Cantor. “Even just the Aurora project. Having 30 blocks of new sidewalks on Aurora will be transformational.” 

Seattle Neighborhood Greenways was part of a coalition of advocates that lobbied the mayor and Council to increase the size of the levy to $1.9 billion to invest even more in things like safety projects, bike infrastructure and sidewalk construction. The levy ultimately grew by $200 million from the mayor’s first proposal of $1.35 billion.  

Though she was hoping for more, Cantor said, “Overall it’s a compromise package that pulls together needs from across the city. No matter how you get around, it’s a levy that will improve our transportation system for you.” 

The case against 

Alex Pedersen was a Seattle City Councilmember from 2019-2023 and chaired the Council Transportation Committee. He calls the new transportation levy “unaffordable, inequitable and ineffective.” He also opposed the 2015 Move Seattle levy.  

Pedersen argues that as the most expensive levy in the city’s history, the new property tax would unfairly burden middle-income homeowners and renters.  

He also doesn’t think the levy serves enough Seattleites with its project list. For example, under the levy’s $403 million street maintenance and modernization plan, SDOT says it will invest $330 million in repaving 15 of the city’s busiest corridors, along with spot repaving and pothole repair elsewhere.  

“SDOT should be repaving as many streets as possible. Instead, they’re taking the bulk of the money and putting it into 15 corridors,” said Pedersen.  

Similarly, Pedersen argued that it doesn’t make sense to invest $68.5 million in construction of new bike lanes when bicycling accounts for such a small percentage of how Seattleites get to work.  

“I support an interconnected bike network, but we have to face the reality that after years of investment in bike infrastructure, still only 4% of commuters bike to work,” said Pedersen. “If we want to be fiscally responsible, we should focus on the priorities like repaving streets, building sidewalks and fixing bridges.” 

Finally, Pedersen worries that the city is shifting away from seismic upgrades on Seattle’s aging bridges toward more cosmetic projects.  

SDOT refutes that claim, along with his assertion that the levy’s paving priorities don’t serve enough Seattleites.  

With regards to bridges, SDOT spokesperson Ethan Bergeson explained the city modified its approach to bridge repair and maintenance in response to a 2020 city auditor report, but said that doesn’t mean the city has shifted from seismic work. In an email, Bergeson wrote, “SDOT has and will continue to focus on structural work, including bridge seismic retrofits, fixing eroded foundations, replacing damaged concrete bridge deck surfaces, replacing worn-out bridge bearings, painting exposed steel components, replacing expansion joints and more.” 

On street repaving, Bergeson said that it is the category receiving the most funding from the new levy, and the city will use that money to “pave as much as possible.” Additionally, he wrote, “the 15 named paving corridors in the new levy legislation are prioritized by the streets most in need of reconstruction or major maintenance. They also carry the most people and goods. These kind of major maintenance projects also provide the most cost-effective opportunity to make the street safer in furtherance of the City’s Vision Zero policy.” 

What if the levy doesn’t pass? 

Pedersen said he wants to “reject and redo.” If voters reject the levy in November, he hopes the city will quickly go back to the drawing board to craft a smaller levy that’s more focused on repaving, bridge repair and sidewalks.  

He also wants the city to diversify its transportation funding sources by adopting transportation impact fees for developers, a tool more than 70 Washington cities currently use. Under Washington law, cities can charge developers an impact fee that can be used for road projects, among other uses. Opponents of impact fees argue they just raise the price of housing because it’s an additional construction cost developers ultimately pass along to tenants.  

Hovenkotter of the Transportation Choices Coalition argued that if voters reject the levy, Seattleites will feel it in all parts of the transportation system. “It really means more potholes that won’t go filled. More bike lanes that will be unsafe. Slower buses for families. Bridges that break down more because we haven’t invested enough to maintain them.” 

King County Elections have begun mailing ballots to voters, who have until Nov. 5 to turn them in. For information on other races in Seattle and around Washington, check out Cascade PBS’s statewide voter guide.  

This article has been updated with information about how much the expiring Levy to Move Seattle costs the median homeowner. 

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