Seattle’s Mayor Installing More Red Light Cameras

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October 10, 2010

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is out to punish drivers who frequent Seattle’s business districts and Seattle-area drivers (i.e. You and Me) by raising parking rates, and installing Red Light Cameras – this is ALL A MONEY GRAB . Big Brother wants more of your money. This is not about safety. This is not helpful to blurrinesses in Seattle. This is happening in every city in America as governments, who can’t manage their checkbooks always look to the population for more and more and more…. Time to fight back!

Here’s the Story:

McGinn: No parking tax means no bike/walk plan

By CHRIS GRYGIEL
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Throwing down the gauntlet to the City Council, Mayor Mike McGinn says if a 5 percent commercial parking tax isn’t approved the pedestrian and bike master plans couldn’t be implemented, there’d be no money to help keep neighborhood traffic operations safe, no funds to maintain or install traffic meters and the city couldn’t chip in to replace the now closed South Park Bridge.

City Council President Richard Conlin complained last month that McGinn was not being true to his word when he said he’d work with the legislative branch during budget discussions.

Facing a $67 million deficit, McGinn made cuts but also proposed increasing the commercial parking tax and making people pay a lot more to park on city streets – among other fee hikes – to balance the books. The Council has indicated they’re unlikely to approve many of these new fees and Conlin had asked for a priorities list from the mayor’s office – basically a list of further cuts to transportation to take the place of the tax increases. McGinn had refused, saying his proposed 2011 budget outlined his priorities.

Late Friday McGinn said on his city blog that he has now told the council which projects would be affected if the parking tax is rejected.

“The Council has questioned my budgetary priorities,” McGinn wrote. “When I developed my proposed budget I was faced with a baseline budget that made it hard to cover the basics, much less add any extras. So I looked for new sources of revenue to pay for this mix of basic infrastructure, and biking and walking investments.

Among the things McGinn says will be on the chopping block next year:

 

  • $1.7 million for the Bike Master Plan.
  • $1.5 million for the city’s annual share to replace the South Park Bridge, which closed June 30. Businesses in the area say commerce is down by as much as 50 percent. The new bridge, to be paid for with a combination of federal, county and city money, isn’t expected to be done until 2013.
  • $900,000 for the Pedestrian Master Plan.
  • $252,000 for paid parking maintenance and instillation.
  • $261,000 for street cleaning.
  • $148,000 for Neighborhood Traffic Services, a program that deals with complains about traffic speeds and helps install things like traffic circles to slow vehicles down.
  • $28,000 for red light photo enforcement.The City Council has the final say on budget matters. The members are faced with tough decisions. Raising fees during a recession is not popular with businesses, who complain the move would hurt them badly. But the bike/walk plan has a vocal constituency as well. Also, other governments will howl if Seattle backs out of its commitment to help pay to replace the South Park Bridge.After several weeks of hearings the City Council is expected to pass a final spending plan later this month.

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