Today, the Urbanist offers the correspondence of Tacoma Government Relation Officer Randy Lewis received on 9:39 p.m. 2/6 as to his on his insights on the effect of House Bill 3158 concerning Tacoma's beloved Murray Morgan Bridge. 

There was a report earlier that City of Tacoma could be considering raising the city sales tax up to 9 percent.  That is not the case.


Here is the email unedited:

Eric, as always I appreciate your insights but the TNT failed to accurately describe how HB 3158 would work. It does not require a vote of the people to raise the sales tax for the bridge because there is really no increase in the sales tax.

The .2 percent increase in the tax is a credit against the state share of the sales tax collected in Tacoma. The state rate is 6.5 cents. The effect of this mechanism is simply to transfer .2 percent of the state revenue collected in Tacoma from the state to the city for the specific purpose of restoring the bridge. This is the same mechanism that was used to provide state funding to the convention center, though in that case the rate was .033 percent but the taxing district is all of Tacoma, Fife, UP, Lakewood and unincorporated Pierce County.

For the bridge, it would be just Tacoma. As you are aware there are written agreements about what the state is supposed to do concerning the bridge. Nevertheless, it is my belief that a "sweetener" was needed for the state to get them to take this deal.

What the bill offers is that the city will assume ownership of the bridge immediately when the bill goes into effect and will handle the rehab of the bridge, so the state gets to walk away from the bridge years earlier than it would otherwise and doesn't need to try to rehab a bridge it doesn't want. This bill is an uphill challenge, but it represents the only opportunity we've got in the short term to get the rehab underway. I hope this explanation was helpful.
 

Randy Lewis

From the Fiscal Note of HB 3158, an estimated $4,483,000 would be generated from the first year ramping up to $9,083,000 for 2013 totallying $37,289,000 by 2013.  This would be from the state portion of the "sales and use" tax in Tacoma. No taxes would be increased from Tacoma.
Commentary

This could be a good start to save the Murray Morgan bridge.  Read the summary of the bill for a better explanation.  However, without more details it is difficult to know whether this is a good deal or not for Tacoma. 

Some Questions remain:

1) How long will the .2 percent in salses tax be diverted to Tacoma?  Just until 2013?

2) Could the terms be changed in the future by the legislature after the city has taken responsibility for the bridge?

3) Would the city need to take out a loan secured by the future revenue so that work could start right away?

Tacoma would need a substantial permanent funding source to take care of a metal bridge like this even after it repaired. Even thern, the risks are high.  Also, the  great push to keep the bridge operation has to do with connecting to the Port of Tacoma.  Looking to the Port for funding may make sense.

There is an emergency clause in the bill which would make the bill effective 6/1/2008.  If you like the idea of the bill, or not, you may want to contact your state legislators and let them know.