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The House Transportation Committee will be holding a hearing on that proposal at 3:30 this afternoon. House Bill 3158 is sponsored by Reps. Dennis Flannigan, D-Tacoma, Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma, Dawn Morrell, D-Puyallup and Zach Hudgins, D-Tukwila.
I had to correct an earlier post because I initially thought the City Council would be able to raise the sales tax to 9 percent from the current 8.8 percent in Tacoma. Then I ran into the city's lobbyist, who explained the 0.2 percent sales tax for the bridge would come out of the state's share of sales taxes collected inside the Tacoma city limits.
That means Tacoma would keep 0.2 percent of the state's 6.5 percent sales tax.
Proceeds would go toward replacing the or rehabilitating the Murray Morgan Bridge, which was closed last year by the state because it's still falling apart. The city needs somewhere between $77 million and $135 million for the project.
The state set aside $26.5 million for bridge demolition, but several years ago said Tacoma could use that money to preserve the bridge instead. I looked up the story I wrote at the time and found an interesting quote from Tacoma lobbyist Randy Lewis.
"We expect that remaining money will be privately raised and that there will be federal contributions," Lewis said Feb. 26, 2004.
Apparently, the city now expects the state to pay for pretty much the whole project.
COMMENTS:
I'm a little bit concerned by the "replacing or rehabilitating" statement, because I think the rationale behind saving the bridge is at least as focused on the historical significance as it is the transportation significance.
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Thanks alot for nothing. Having let the bridge deteriote, the state is going to allow Tacoma to pay for the state's mistake. Something's wrong here. That's no help at all.
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If there is $50,000,000 extra the city has to spend, I think there may be higher priority projects for Tacoma.
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How about if the state allocates another $50,000,000 for the bridge?
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The way the bill is written, there would be no citywide vote on the tax increase.
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Because they know the vote would fail by a mile.
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Razing the blightful North Park Plaza Parking garage so there is not two blocks of deadness on Tacoma's mainstreet would be a better use of funds IMO and would cost far less.
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North Park Plaza Parking
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