Tumwater voters to consider renewing sales tax for street maintenance projects

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Tumwater voters will consider a ballot proposition on whether to retain a 0.2% sales tax the city uses to fund street maintenance projects. 

The Tumwater City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 21, adopted a resolution placing the proposition on the April 22 special election ballot. 

Brandon Hicks, the city’s transportation director, emphasized during the meeting that the proposition does not ask for any tax increase but just to simply renew the tax, which expires this year. 

The city has been collecting the tax since voters passed the creation of the city’s transportation benefit district in 2014. For every $100 spent on sales-taxable items in the city, 20 cents goes toward maintaining city streets. 

The city’s transportation benefit district generated more than $19.2 million for the city in the past 10 years through the sales tax, with more than $6 million used to leverage state and federal grant funding, according to Hicks. 

The tax has been used to repave, chip seal or do some form of preservation for more than 100 lane miles of road improvements, which Hicks said accounts for more than 40% of city-owned streets. 

More than a hundred new curb ramps and more than 38,000 feet of pavement markings have also been constructed in the city because of the tax. 

The figures do not include projects that were partially financed with grant funding, such as the improvements for Israel Road, Linderson Way, Linwood Avenue and 2nd Avenue. 

“If we didn't have the (transportation benefit district), our roads would be much worse than what they were 10 years ago,” Hicks said. 

“When I started working here at the city, which was close to 10 years ago, I can remember them being in pretty poor condition. ... We probably had the worst streets in the county, at least out of Olympia, Tumwater, Lacey and Thurston County as a whole. … And now we're, I would say we're the second best. We're catching up to Lacey.” 

The renewal of the transportation benefit district also proposes expanding projects eligible for tax funding, as the city wants to expand its sidewalk program to ensure that all pedestrian facilities are compliant with the American with Disabilities Act. 

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