This should be short… unlike the Council Briefing this morning.
This afternoon the council gave final approval to an $8 million bond issuance ordinance to pay for an upgrade to the signage system throughout Seattle Center. ArenaCo will be paying 75% of the debt service on the bonds.
The Council also approved a spending plan for $23 million in reserve funds from the Seattle Transportation Benefit District that expired last December. The funds were held back in case I-976 had been upheld and the city was required to pay back certain car tab fees.
This morning the Council members and representatives of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations were fairly giddy about the weekend activity in both Olympia and the “other Washington,” i.e. the state capital gains tax and the federal COVID relief package. Budget chair Mosqueda said that she is already working on a bill to quickly authorize spending coming to the city via the COVID relief package — while the final amount won’t be known until the bill is signed, it’s estimated to be around $221 million. Mosqueda is also continuing to work on a resolution to establish the spending priorities for COVID relief funds.
The “right to counsel” bill for tenants facing eviction passed out of committee last week by a 3-1 vote. It will come up for final passage next Monday afternoon. Councilmember Sawant is not leaving anything to chance, working hard to lobby her colleagues and assuage their concerns about the bill.
Councilmember Juarez, for her part, is working on Sound Transit board members as a vote approaches on whether to accelerate the construction of the 130th Street light rail station by seven years. The decision is pending a July 21 vote on realignment options, after Sound Transit accounts for huge revenue losses.
I hope you found this article valuable. If you did, please take a moment to make a contribution to support my ongoing work. Thanks!