Proposed 2025 Seattle budget shows why passing the transportation levy in November is so important
The trail budget if the Seattle Transportation Levy fails in November. Some Move Seattle projects delayed beyond 2024 will get funding in 2025, but it will not be ongoing. From the mayor's proposed 2025-26 budget for SDOT (PDF), which much assume no new levy funds.
The already insufficient sidewalks and crosswalks budget would be nearly halved. Mayor Bruce Harrell's proposed 2025-26 SDOT budget (PDF) had to be written assuming the 2015 Move Seattle Levy will expire at the end of 2024 without a replacement. So it is a grim look at how SDOT's work would be gutted if voters do not approve the Seattle Transportation Levy (Proposition 1) on the November ballot.
With fewer financial resources available, SDOT will focus on capital project delivery for existing work and commitments made in the levy," the budget overview notes. Less will be spent on maintenance and preservation of assets (roads, bridges, transit, pedestrian and bike facilities), while innovations and system enhancements will be delayed to a future time when more resources are available. This slowing of maintenance and asset preservation work will affect transportation safety, mobility of goods and services, and climate and environmental goals."
The expiring levy has provided $103 million per year, and the only way to craft a budget without that $103 million is to slash pretty much everything. The result is a budget that focuses on the non-optional functions of the department like moving bridge operations, emergency weather response, court-mandated accessibility fixes, some safety elements of the Vision Zero program, fixing dangerous road deterioration, and keeping lines painted. Investments to get ahead on road maintenance, expand the bike network, maintain or improve trails, fully rebuild roadways (rather than simply adding yet more patches), complete seismic retrofits for bridges, provide bus and streetcar operating costs, or build new sidewalks would all be slashed hard. SDOT staffing would also be reduced, which would harm the effectiveness of essentially every department team.
To offset a relatively tiny amount of the levy funds, the city will double the number of automated enforcement cameras like school zone speed cameras (this is actually a good thing and would be used to provide dedicated funds to school zone safety projects) and increase street use fees by more than 25%.
Because some final Move Seattle Levy projects will continue into 2025, the budget still includes funding for some significant Move Seattle projects like the E Marginal Way rebuild and RapidRide J projects that have been delayed past the end of 2024. But these funds will likely not be ongoing beyond those projects.
Worse, the city's general fund does not have the capacity to save SDOT's budget if needed. Mayor Harrell's proposed budget includes wide-ranging cuts, and is precariously propped up only by redirecting excess funds from the JumpStart payroll tax that were initially supposed to go to affordable housing. Regardless of where you stand on those larger budget questions, the reality is that the city is not in a position to prop up SDOT if the November levy fails.
But there is good news: None of this needs to happen. Passing the Seattle Transportation Levy will not only prevent the cuts described above, it will add an additional $90.5 million per year on top of the expiring Move Seattle Levy's annual contribution to make even better progress on paving, street safety, bike lanes, sidewalks, accessibility, freight, climate initiatives and more. Even after adjusting for inflation, November's levy would still be a 55% increase in annual transportation funding. After years of disruptions due to the Trump administration's reluctance to send funds to our sanctuary city," Mayor Durkan's years of indecisive leadership, and the pandemic, SDOT has finally been playing catch-up in recent years to deliver a flurry of Move Seattle promises. The RapidRide J project is breaking ground, RapidRide G just opened, bridges across the city are getting important maintenance, protected bike lanes are opening downtown as well as in south Seattle on MLK Way and Beacon Hill. SDOT is a department showing the people that despite disappointments in the first half of the Move Seattle Levy's time, they are now prepared to deliver projects effectively and at the advanced rate that the Seattle Transportation Levy would require over the next eight years.
The decision for voters in November is stark. Do we want to stop forward progress on transportation, instead doing little more than keeping the lights on at SDOT while roads fall further into disrepair and death and injury rates climb unabated? Or do we want to invest to actually make progress on maintenance after decades of falling behind while also showing the rest of the country what is possible when a city takes funding for walking and biking safety seriously?
If you want to help get out the vote for Seattle's Proposition 1 fill out this form on the Keep Seattle Moving campaign page. They need folks to make calls, knock on doors, leaflet at events, host house parties, etc. In 2015, safe streets advocates were a major piece of the on-the-ground effort to get the Move Seattle Levy over the top. Let's do it again.