Post by nightstalker on Nov 12, 2008 23:53:50 GMT -5
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Port Votes to Increase Taxes 11% Next Year
Commission chief questions necessity
By KRISTEN MILLARES YOUNG
The Port of Seattle Commission voted Tuesday to increase the taxes it collects from King County property owners to $84 million in 2009, an 11 percent increase from the $76 million it collected in 2008.
The port's 2009 tax levy total, which is based on a half-cent reduction in its rate to 21.9 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, is $1 million less than state law's $85 million cap on the port's 2009 levy. The levy would cost the owner of a $400,000 home $87.60 a year.
The port commission voted 4-0 to approve the tax increase. Gael Tarleton did not vote on it because she had to leave before the vote was taken.
After debating how to set priorities for maintenance and capital projects, several commissioners noted "we have to cut it" -- the rate of tax -- to comply with state law; Tuesday's vote was the first of two required to pass the 2009 budget, which predicts a $1.3 million portwide decrease in net income to $209.8 million before depreciation. That income drops to $58.7 million after depreciation.
Commission President John Creighton questioned whether all the projects on the budget needed to be accomplished in 2009.
"A lot of these projects seem to fall down the list in terms of priority. ... If we're not going to be as aggressive as we can in reducing the tax levy this year, what year can we be?"
Commissioner Pat Davis said voters' passage of parks levies showed their support for investment now.
"This is the time to invest," Davis said. "We have the wherewithal to keep investing, creating jobs, and keep the working waterfront that we have."
Most of the tax levy is used to pay off seaport debts, but the rest is used to pay for transportation, social and environmental programs. About $23 million in unused tax levy funds rolled over from 2007 to 2008, and an additional $37 million is slated to roll over from 2008 to 2009, because of lags in bond issuance and spending on noise insulation and freight mobility projects.
The port's 1,791-member staff plans to use $114 million of the $120 million it will have accumulated in 2009. That would include $58 million on debt service (including the Eastside rail corridor, the purchase of which was delayed until the port can find backers for the bonds), $36 million on capital projects and $20 million on noise insulation, freight mobility and environmental expenses.
The port's 2009 budget predicts a 23 percent drop in net assets to $111.5 million from $145.1 million in 2008.
Also at Tuesday's meeting the port's process for tackling the issue of diesel truck emissions came under fire for occurring behind closed doors, where the plans crafted became weighted toward the large trucking companies to the ill-paid drivers' detriment.
As part of its voluntary pollution-reduction strategy, the port aims to have the trucks that serve its docks reach the particulate emissions level of 1994 or newer by 2010. By 2015, the port plans to mandate that 80 percent of the trucks -- which haul containers between its terminals and rail and container yards and warehouses -- reach the particulate emissions level of 2007 or newer, hitting 100 percent by 2017.
Several labor and environmental groups have pushed the port to try to restructure the drayage industry from paying independent drivers per trip to employing drivers in order to more easily regulate the fleet of nearly 2,000 trucks that rumble to and from the port each day -- and organize their drivers.
A port analysis found 24 percent of those trucks were built before 1994, which Stephanie Jones Stebbins, port senior manager of seaport environmental programs, said was "an important year -- that's when regulations on emissions from diesel trucks required that new trucks be cleaner."
At the closed-door industry meetings the port has arranged until now, the port staff presented a draft plan that would lay the cost of updating the trucks, which cost more than $100,000 new, to meet stricter environmental standards on the truck drivers, rather than the companies. The plan and public comment period was to have been debuted on Election Day and wrapped up before year's end, but community feedback has caused the port to go back to the drawing board on its stakeholder groups and timeline for implementation.
Olufemi Dosunmu is a Nigerian immigrant who lives in Tukwila and drives a 1995 Mack truck back and forth between the port and the rail and container yards that support it.
"Why do you always put the responsibility on the drivers?" asked Dosunmu, who like many drivers must pay for the insurance and maintenance of his truck, which he drives as an owner operator contracting with a trucking company. "They just take money from us -- we have to pay for everything."
Dosunmu said that, contrary to the port's claims, truckers such as himself were not invited to the prior meetings.
In their presentation to the port commission Tuesday, port staff ranked assuring that emissions reductions goals were reached without a diversion of cargo to other, cheaper ports as of more importance than both bettering truckers' lives and making the program affordable for the port. The port predicts a drop in containerized trade of 10.5 percent next year and is wary both of lawsuits and putting more costs on industry.
Paul Marvy, an attorney for labor federation Change to Win, said the Port of Seattle has the same authority to put the costs of updating the trucking fleet on the industry as the Port of Los Angeles, which already has begun overhauling its trucking program using container fees.
"It is not a regulation -- it is a landlord's ability to regulate those who are on its own property," Marvy said, responding to the port staff's claim that the port does not have the regulatory authority needed to impose fees on the industries that use its facilities.
Sarah Flagg, the port's air quality program manager for seaport environmental programs, said the port is considering a wide range of funding options -- including using state bonds with a funding match by the port, the port's tax levy, a container fee, a fee paid by terminal operators and fees paid by the drivers of noncompliant trucks.
Reporter Kristen Millares Young can be reached at 206-448-8142 or kristenyoung@seattlepi.com.
Port Votes to Increase Taxes 11% Next Year
Commission chief questions necessity
By KRISTEN MILLARES YOUNG
The Port of Seattle Commission voted Tuesday to increase the taxes it collects from King County property owners to $84 million in 2009, an 11 percent increase from the $76 million it collected in 2008.
The port's 2009 tax levy total, which is based on a half-cent reduction in its rate to 21.9 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, is $1 million less than state law's $85 million cap on the port's 2009 levy. The levy would cost the owner of a $400,000 home $87.60 a year.
The port commission voted 4-0 to approve the tax increase. Gael Tarleton did not vote on it because she had to leave before the vote was taken.
After debating how to set priorities for maintenance and capital projects, several commissioners noted "we have to cut it" -- the rate of tax -- to comply with state law; Tuesday's vote was the first of two required to pass the 2009 budget, which predicts a $1.3 million portwide decrease in net income to $209.8 million before depreciation. That income drops to $58.7 million after depreciation.
Commission President John Creighton questioned whether all the projects on the budget needed to be accomplished in 2009.
"A lot of these projects seem to fall down the list in terms of priority. ... If we're not going to be as aggressive as we can in reducing the tax levy this year, what year can we be?"
Commissioner Pat Davis said voters' passage of parks levies showed their support for investment now.
"This is the time to invest," Davis said. "We have the wherewithal to keep investing, creating jobs, and keep the working waterfront that we have."
Most of the tax levy is used to pay off seaport debts, but the rest is used to pay for transportation, social and environmental programs. About $23 million in unused tax levy funds rolled over from 2007 to 2008, and an additional $37 million is slated to roll over from 2008 to 2009, because of lags in bond issuance and spending on noise insulation and freight mobility projects.
The port's 1,791-member staff plans to use $114 million of the $120 million it will have accumulated in 2009. That would include $58 million on debt service (including the Eastside rail corridor, the purchase of which was delayed until the port can find backers for the bonds), $36 million on capital projects and $20 million on noise insulation, freight mobility and environmental expenses.
The port's 2009 budget predicts a 23 percent drop in net assets to $111.5 million from $145.1 million in 2008.
Also at Tuesday's meeting the port's process for tackling the issue of diesel truck emissions came under fire for occurring behind closed doors, where the plans crafted became weighted toward the large trucking companies to the ill-paid drivers' detriment.
As part of its voluntary pollution-reduction strategy, the port aims to have the trucks that serve its docks reach the particulate emissions level of 1994 or newer by 2010. By 2015, the port plans to mandate that 80 percent of the trucks -- which haul containers between its terminals and rail and container yards and warehouses -- reach the particulate emissions level of 2007 or newer, hitting 100 percent by 2017.
Several labor and environmental groups have pushed the port to try to restructure the drayage industry from paying independent drivers per trip to employing drivers in order to more easily regulate the fleet of nearly 2,000 trucks that rumble to and from the port each day -- and organize their drivers.
A port analysis found 24 percent of those trucks were built before 1994, which Stephanie Jones Stebbins, port senior manager of seaport environmental programs, said was "an important year -- that's when regulations on emissions from diesel trucks required that new trucks be cleaner."
At the closed-door industry meetings the port has arranged until now, the port staff presented a draft plan that would lay the cost of updating the trucks, which cost more than $100,000 new, to meet stricter environmental standards on the truck drivers, rather than the companies. The plan and public comment period was to have been debuted on Election Day and wrapped up before year's end, but community feedback has caused the port to go back to the drawing board on its stakeholder groups and timeline for implementation.
Olufemi Dosunmu is a Nigerian immigrant who lives in Tukwila and drives a 1995 Mack truck back and forth between the port and the rail and container yards that support it.
"Why do you always put the responsibility on the drivers?" asked Dosunmu, who like many drivers must pay for the insurance and maintenance of his truck, which he drives as an owner operator contracting with a trucking company. "They just take money from us -- we have to pay for everything."
Dosunmu said that, contrary to the port's claims, truckers such as himself were not invited to the prior meetings.
In their presentation to the port commission Tuesday, port staff ranked assuring that emissions reductions goals were reached without a diversion of cargo to other, cheaper ports as of more importance than both bettering truckers' lives and making the program affordable for the port. The port predicts a drop in containerized trade of 10.5 percent next year and is wary both of lawsuits and putting more costs on industry.
Paul Marvy, an attorney for labor federation Change to Win, said the Port of Seattle has the same authority to put the costs of updating the trucking fleet on the industry as the Port of Los Angeles, which already has begun overhauling its trucking program using container fees.
"It is not a regulation -- it is a landlord's ability to regulate those who are on its own property," Marvy said, responding to the port staff's claim that the port does not have the regulatory authority needed to impose fees on the industries that use its facilities.
Sarah Flagg, the port's air quality program manager for seaport environmental programs, said the port is considering a wide range of funding options -- including using state bonds with a funding match by the port, the port's tax levy, a container fee, a fee paid by terminal operators and fees paid by the drivers of noncompliant trucks.
Reporter Kristen Millares Young can be reached at 206-448-8142 or kristenyoung@seattlepi.com.