As reported here, "Mayor Greg Nickels' $1.8 billion transportation improvement package probably will be reduced before it can be approved for submission to voters, the chairwoman of the Seattle City Council's Transportation Committee said Wednesday.
"Councilwoman Jan Drago wouldn't guess how much the mayor's package might get trimmed but said "there's a general feeling" it is too big " and we need to make it more reasonable."" $1.8 billion too big? You think? Granted, the period the Mayor envisions that this amount will be collected is twenty years, but that still equates to $90 million annually, and it is based on false assumptions, as well.
The Mayor assumes that his parking spot tax of $10.00 per space, and his $25.00 per full time employee tax will remain constant, if not grow in number, and by extension, dollars collected over that twenty year span will either remain constant, or increase. I think the opposite will be more likely, as parking lot owners may sell their properties to developers, reducing the amount of available parking spaces, and/or businesses that don't want to, or can't afford to, pay the per employee tax, will relocate out of the city to somewhere else where the "climate" is more "business-friendly", thereby reducing the amount collected by the city.
If the council passes the parking space, and per employee taxes, I believe the net effect will be to drive both businesses and their customers away from downtown Seattle, as the parking lot owners will surely pass along the tax to those who use their lots, and businesses will also be forced to raise their prices to pay for the per employee tax, making them less competitive with businesses that do not have to pay a per employee tax.
This entire tax package is a bad idea, and I think that the Mayor and the City Council need to re-think this, come to the right conclusion, and scrap the whole thing.
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