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| | | Seattle Will Not Receive Less Than Neighbors for Road Repair | On Friday, King County Council voted to implement a 0.1% sales tax measure to help fund unincorporated roads, which are badly in need of maintenance from underfunding and floods from last year, with a 12.5% pass-through to cities. But an amendment from District 5’s Steffanie Fain that would cap the amount any city would receive from the fund at 15%, which would have only affected Seattle, and Seattle elected officials pushed back. The King County Council voted 5 - 4 to remove the cap, meaning Seattle will not receive less for road repair. [The Urbanist] | - ‘$30 million over 10 years’: Seattle councilmember Eddie Lin issued a statement opposing the cap, saying: “Seattle residents and businesses collectively contribute around 40% of the sales taxes that the county collects, and now the county is proposing to single us out to receive significantly less than every other city — forcing us to subsidize roads for some of our wealthiest neighbors. This is unacceptable.” [Seattle City Council Blog]
- A disproportionately high amount? Seattle City Council wrote a letter to their King County colleagues asking to remove the binding cap, saying that the redistribution of Seattle’s funds wouldn’t go to smaller cities that need it, like Skykomish and Carnation; rather, they write, “these dollars will go to medium and large cities such as Redmond, Kirkland, and Sammamish.”
- Are we getting shortchanged? On the podcast, Jane C. Hu discussed the cap with contributor Ryan Packer and creative producer Liam Billingham, weighing the various angles of who is and should be responsible for fixing these roads. [🎧City Cast Seattle]
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| What Seattle’s Talking About |
| 📚 Fantagraphics is 50: Happy 50th to Fantagraphics, the Georgetown-based comic publisher that is home to work by Daniel Clowes, the Hernandez brothers, and a lot more. My favorite quote from this piece, about the ‘90s: “At that time, you kind of identified yourself as much by what you didn't like as what you really did like.” Bring it back! [KUOW] | | 🏡 Ballmer Group to fund affordable housing units: Microsoft’s former CEO’s philanthropic group is covering $150,000 in forgivable loans for 10,000 units in Washington state, which could cost as much as $1.5 billion. To qualify, families need to earn 50% of the area’s median income, or about $82,200 in Seattle. [Washington State Standard] | | | ⚽ Are you watching the World Cup? With the first game in Seattle today (Belgium v. Egypt), here’s a list of spots we recommend you check out to watch some games! I may have to head over to Queen Anne Beerhall. [City Cast Seattle] |
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