I was Chairman of the Olympia Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee when we launched the citywide sidewalk planning effort. That led, in 2002, to a detailed prioritization of sidewalks for every neighborhood collector, major collector, and arterial street in the City. That work has been updated by the Transportation Master Plan process.
We then asked the City Council to augment sidewalk funding. At that time, $150,000 per year was appropriated from the general fund for sidewalks. Voters approved a utility tax increase in 2004 that added $1 million/year for sidewalks, and $2 million/year for parks. The plan at that time was that the voted utility tax would pay for NEW sidewalks, while the $150,000/year from the General Fund would pay for repairs of EXISTING sidewalks.
Unfortunately, the current City Council is not appropriating the $150,000/year from the general fund. So there is no sidewalk repair fund. And the City has appropriated 20% of the $1 million/year from the voted utility tax for "administration" even though there is no program for either new sidewalks or sidewalk repairs being administered in 2022 or 2023.
The City needs to go back to 2004, and determine how much sidewalk funding was appropriated from the General Fund, compared to what was anticipated when voters approved the Voted Utility Tax (18 years x $150,000/year is $2.7 million). And also account for the roughly $18 million received since 2004 from the Voted Utility Tax for sidewalks.
Then and only then can we see if the City has diverted some of the planned sidewalk funding.
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