CITY OF SEATTLE
ORDINANCE __________________
COUNCIL BILL __________________
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AN ORDINANCE amending Ordinance 126237, which adopted the 2021 Budget, including the 2021-2026 Capital Improvement Program (CIP); changing appropriations within the Transportation Benefit District Fund; revising project allocations for certain projects in the 2021-2026 CIP; and lifting a proviso.
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WHEREAS, the Seattle City Council formed a Transportation Benefit District in 2010 and imposed a $20 annual vehicle license fee that went into effect in 2011 for transportation purposes; and
WHEREAS, the annual vehicle license fee was increased to a total of $80 per year after Seattle voters approved a six-year measure called Proposition 1 in 2014 that expired at the end of 2020; and
WHEREAS, Seattle voters approved a new Proposition 1 in November 2020 that relies solely on sales tax, thereby leaving only a $20 annual vehicle license fee in effect; and
WHEREAS, after the State Supreme Court struck down statewide Initiative 976's prohibition on Transportation Benefit District authority to collect vehicle license fees, the Council passed Ordinance 126234, increasing Seattle's annual Vehicle License Fee from the $20 established in 2010 to $40 in 2021 as pursuant to RCW 36.73.065 and 82.80.140; and
WHEREAS, in Ordinance 126234, the Council expressed its intent that by April 1, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) develop a spending plan for the additional $20 Vehicle License Fee through a "transparent, inclusive, and public stakeholder engagement process that includes input from the Move Seattle Levy Oversight Committee, the city's transportation boards and commissions, transit equity organizations, and community organizations, particularly those organizations representing communities that are disproportionately reliant on transit, and labor unions whose members are impacted by transportation investments, including Ironworkers, Building Trades, and Laborers"; and
WHEREAS, the ...
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