Washington: Primary Today

[jenk]

This reminder comes from my friend Jay Arnold:

The primary is on Tuesday, August 21st. Yes, this is earlier than previous years; part of an effort by the legislature to give candidates and county election offices a few more weeks to prepare for the November election. In addition to narrowing the field in some Port races, there are important parks levies on the ballot.

For poll voters, the routine has not changed (yet). For mail-in voters, your ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday or turned into a polling place by 8:00 PM.

Jay also served on the King County Park Futures task force which recommends the county parks levy.

King County Parks Levy
King County Proposition #1 and #2 consists of:

• A renewal of the existing operations and maintenance levy for county parks, trails, and open space. This is a 5-cent property tax per $1000 of value. A slight increase (from existing $4.9 cents) but also returns service levels to normal after the county budget crisis of 2002.
• An additional 5-cent expansion levy to acquire regional trails and open space, support the Woodland Park Zoo, and support cities that link their trails and open space to the regional system.

The combined cost is $40 /yr for a $400,000 home, and will expire in 6 years. The operations levy renewal received unimamous, bipartisan support from the King County Council. Both levies are supported by Times, P-I, Stranger, and Muni League.

• Information from King County on the Levy
• Seattle P-I Article
• Seattle Times Article
• Stranger Endoresements
• Municipal League Endorsement

I served on the Parks Futures Task Force that King County Executive Ron Sims organized to look at County Parks. (See http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/news/2007/0329parks.aspx) The first question about the parks levy is “Why are we voting on this?” As you look at the question, three things were clear during our discussion: voter-approved levy is required, these regional assets are things only the county can do, and they are doing it innovatively and well:

• Parks are not part of county services requried by the state and King County does not have discretionary revenue for things like parks, especially as incorporation and annexation takes away the county's tax base and real estate market cools but service requirements remains high (especially criminal justice and services to pockets of unincoproated areas like County Sheriff). The county finance director called it "An Inconvenient Truth". The long-term solution the Times seeks will not happen for several years, until King County is focused more on a regional mission, unincorporated areas are truly outlying, rural areas (instead of unincorporated pockets in the urban area). Then, discretionary money will be available.
• The County is following its strategy adopted in 2002 of supporting major, regional parks and facilities (like Marymoor park in Redmond or the King county Aquatics Center in Federal Way), regional trails (like the Burke-Gilman), and rural parks and open space. The county is no longer in the business of operating facilities in various cities; tranfser of urban parks and swimming pools to cities are almost entirely complete. (Seattle Councilmbmer Richard McIver is misguided here in his criticism in above article.)
• County Parks have an innovative division looking at public-private partnerships, such as hosting of Cirque du Soleil, getting sponsored Wi-Fi coverage for Marymoor park, or partnering with restaurants to opearte facilities in the parks. These partnerships provide over 20% of operating revenue for the parks. The county also has a program to provide matgching funds for community groups which has leveraged 6x impact for improvements in regional parks.

In looking forward, the exansion levy intends to acquire trails and open space now accoridng to a previously adopted 20-year strategy. Most right-of-way in the strategy can be acquired, with a portion developed. Projects will be determined by a citizen conservancy group. Note: projects does not include the discussion of acquiring the Burlington Northern railroad line along 405, which has been a separate negotiation between BN, the Port of Seattle, and King County.

Our full report is published at http://www.metrokc.gov/parks/documents/ParksFuturesTaskForceReport2007.pdf