Drafter

Clerk 02/25/2020

Title

A MOTION relating to a property tax levy for 2021 through 2026 for the purpose of providing for the safety, preservation, maintenance and operations of King County's road system.

Body

                     WHEREAS, the county is responsible for approximately 1,500 miles of roads, 182 bridges, 3.4 million linear feet of drainage pipe, over 28,000 culverts, 718 crosswalks and 275 miles of sidewalk in the county's unincorporated areas outside of cities, and

                     WHEREAS, unincorporated King County roads support more than 1 million trips every day, including people traveling to work, school and recreation, businesses, farmers delivering goods and services and emergency responders reaching people who need assistance, and

                     WHEREAS, the county's road services division designs, builds, operates and maintains roads, bridges and related road infrastructure to facilitate the movement of goods, services and people through unincorporated King County, and

                     WHEREAS, the county is experiencing a roads funding crisis due to the impacts of municipal annexations, the 2008 recession, limited gas tax revenues, the effects of voter initiatives, the lack of significant sales and commercial tax revenue from unincorporated areas and an aging bridge and road system.  The lack of revenue is significantly impacting the county's capacity to maintain, improve and replace aging and failed components of the bridge and road system, and

                     WHEREAS, the executive's 2019-2020 proposed budget identified that beginning in 2025, the road services division will not have sufficient revenues to make any capital investments in the preservation of the road system and thereafter, maintenance and operations funding will begin to decline, and

                     WHEREAS, for the benefit of all King County residents, in February 2020, Proposed Ordinance 2020-0110 was introduced, which would submit to the qualified electors of unincorporated King County a property tax levy on an August 2020 special election ballot for the purpose of preserving, maintaining and operating King County's road system;

                     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT MOVED by the Council of King County:

                     A.  It is the intent of the council that the incremental increase in levy proceeds be allocated to the following high priority road and bridge needs:

                       1.  Maintaining 2019 through 2020 levels of core countywide safety and preservation programs;

                       2.  Preserving 2019 through 2020 levels of operations and maintenance;

                       3.  Performing emergency repairs as necessary to keep roads and bridges open and functional for the travelling public;

                       4.  Implementing pavement preservation projects;

                       5.  Conducting bridge replacement and intersection safety projects;

                       6.  Implementing bridge load upgrade program projects; and

  7.  Providing local matching funds to leverage grant opportunities.

                     B.  It is the intent of the council that the priorities listed in section A of this motion be used to guide allocation of the incremental increase in funds to the road services division's capital and operating programs.