Report of the Citizens’ Transportation Advisory Committee

May 25, 2004

Excerpt: Seattle shares with other great cities the converging challenges of maintaining an aging transportation infrastructure while also attempting to expand mobility resources for neighborhoods, business investment, economic vitality and future development. These challenges are compounded by the erosion of viable funding resources for transportation even as the needs for funding intensify.

As a step toward addressing these challenges, the Mayor and City Council adopted Resolution 30604, forming the Citizens' Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC-II). The charge to the 12-member committee was to evaluate and make recommendations for new sources to fund major transportation maintenance and neighborhood transportation needs. The Committee was appointed in November 2003 and met several times from December through April.

The Committee recognizes the requirement for providing funding for major maintenance of existing transportation facilities as well as for transportation improvements in our neighborhoods, commercial and industrial areas, and to promote economic vitality. It also realizes that the City must make transportation improvements to attract new development and business investment in the City. Achieving our vision for future Seattle requires a healthy, efficient transportation system to move people, goods and services throughout the City.

Today, 16% of arterial streets are in poor condition or worse. Although the condition of local streets is not compiled, it is probably at least as bad. SDOT would need to about triple the annual amount of paving and reconstruction in order to reverse the net deterioration of streets. Of the 138 bridges in the City, 37% are in poor condition or worse - most of these are over 60 years old. SDOT should be replacing one bridge every year, but the current funding allows replacement or major rehabilitation of one bridge every 3 or 4 years. Currently 16 bridges have weight restrictions due to critical deficiencies. Many traffic signs and control systems need replacement or upgrading. The backlog of deferred maintenance is currently about $500 million and would require additional funding in the range of $40 to $50 million to provide for current maintenance plus reduce the backlog over the next 20 years. The total amounts identified for neighborhood mobility needs are of similar magnitude.

The cost of inaction would be high. As the condition of the transportation infrastructure deteriorates, it becomes significantly more expensive to repair or replace - effectively doubling every 10 to 15 years. But the cost to the public extends beyond these direct costs in the form of impacts on the quality of life, on the business investment climate, and on the ability to travel in the City without facing delays, detours, congestion and even vehicle damage.

The Committee reviewed and evaluated a variety of different funding options for the City's transportation functions. It has concluded that the City does not have a viable funding mechanism to implement an appropriate user fee for transportation improvements. Therefore, it has identified a pressing need for new State legislative authority for local option transportation funding sources. Unlike some other "home rule" states whereby cities are given considerable latitude in implementing fee and tax structures, the State of Washington is very restrictive in granting provisions for local funding sources. The last comprehensive action by the state legislature to provide local options for transportation funding was in 1990. At that time, the Legislature, recognizing the need for local transportation funding, authorized four mechanisms: (1) local option fuel tax, (2) commercial parking tax, (3) street utility fee, and (4) vehicle license fee. Fourteen years later, none of these sources has become a viable mainstay for local transportation funding, for various reasons. Yet the local funding deficiencies that the 1990 legislation was intended to address are even more acute today.

During the 14-year period from 1990, the City has actually lost transportation revenue sources. In 1995, the Supreme Court ruled the Street Utility Fee as unconstitutional. More recently, the City lost the Vehicle License Fee. And fuel tax revenues have been declining at an average rate of almost 4% per year (in inflation adjusted dollars) due to the restrictive structuring of that revenue source. The City's options for transportation revenues are limited at this time, while the need for transportation infrastructure maintenance and improvement is growing.

The Committee lauds the City for responsive follow-up on the CTAC-1 recommendations of 1996. Of particular note, the City has increased the amount of General Fund and Cumulative Reserve Fund resources for transportation by threefold since 1995. At the same time, the Committee recognizes that in future years, it will be very difficult to increase or even sustain these funding levels under the provisions of Initiative 747. SDOT has been aggressive in pursuing grants, but these are restricted to particular capital projects. Grants do not provide funding for day-to-day operations and maintenance, and they also require allocation of scarce local matching funds.

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