Ballot Title
The City of Seattle Initiative Measure Number 53 concerns the planning, funding and possible construction of a monorail system.
This measure would require the City to provide $6,000,000 to fund operation of the Elevated Transportation Company, including preparation of a monorail funding and construction plan. The measure outlines required elements of the plan, which would be implemented if approved by voters. The City also would be required to reserve up to $200 million in councilmanic bonding capacity, to be used for monorail construction if voters approved the plan. A transit authority would supervise system construction and operation.
Should this measure be enacted into law?
City Attorney's Explanatory Statement
1. Background—Initiative 41
Seattle voters approved Initiative 41 in November 1997. I-41 created a public development
authority, the Elevated Transportation Company or ETC, to build, maintain and operate
an elevated, electrically-powered, rubber-tired mass transit system consisting of specified
stations and terminals serving the four quadrants of Seattle and running through
downtown. The system would be generally “X” shaped and would lie entirely within the
City.
The system was to have been funded by private money; federal, state and local grants;
and if necessary by an increase in the City’s business and occupation tax and/or by
councilmanic revenue bonds. (Councilmanic revenue bonds are bonds that can be issued
without a vote of the public, and for which only revenue generated by the project financed
by the bonds is committed for repayment.) I-41 did not specify how much money the ETC
could spend on the transit system, and did not raise specific amounts from particular
sources. Nor did it raise the City’s business and occupation tax or authorize any particular
bond issue, but instead directed the City Council to do so if necessary.
2. The Law as it Exists Now – the City Council’s Passage of Ordinance 120049
Amending Initiative 41
In July 2000 the Seattle City Council passed Ordinance 120049 (the “Ordinance”),
amending I-41. Among other things the Ordinance dissolved the ETC and deleted
I-41’s direction to the City Council to make funds available for the system if necessary by
either issuing bonds or raising the City’s business and occupation tax.
In place of the ETC, the Ordinance created a citizens’ advisory committee called the
Elevated Transit Committee (the “Committee”). The City is currently undertaking a study,
called the “Intermediate Capacity Transit Service Study,” or ICT, to examine the City’s
transit needs and options and the cost and feasibility of new transit services along several
routes within the City using various technology options. The Committee is to review and
analyze the results of the ICT where elevated transit is identified as
a feasible option. The City Council has directed the Executive to
report on the ICT results and a proposed implementation plan by
February 2000.
Following the Committee’s review of the ICT results, it is to make
recommendations to the City Council about the feasibility for monorail
technology to serve various transportation corridors. In making its
recommendations the Committee is to weigh the costs and benefits
of other transit technologies studied by the ICT and identify and
seek funding sources for monorail construction focusing on revenue
outside the City’s general fund or debt capacity. The Committee will
cease to exist after March 2001 unless extended by a future
ordinance.
3. If Initiative 53 Passes
I-53 provides that the ETC would be re-established and that the
City would be required to fund the ETC, including the ETC’s
preparation of a funding and construction plan for a monorail system
(the “Plan”). It also provides that the City would be required to
reserve certain councilmanic “limited tax general obligation,” or LTGO,
bonding capacity to be used for monorail construction if voters
approved the Plan in a subsequent election. (LTGO bonds are bonds
that can be issued without a vote of the public, and for which general
taxes are committed for repayment.)
Specifically, I-53 provides that the City would be required to:
(1) deposit $20,000 into the ETC’s bank account to carry out the
ETC’s purposes; (2) provide $6 million to the ETC (either from the
City’s general fund or by issuing LTGO bonds) to fund ETC
operations, including the Plan’s preparation; and (c) reserve at least
$125 million and up to $200 million in LTGO bonding capacity, to be
used for all or part of the initial public contribution for monorail
construction if voters approved the Plan in a subsequent vote. The
City would have to maintain the bonding capacity reserve until voters
accepted or rejected the Plan.
The ETC would have up to two years to complete the Plan for a
grade-separated monorail system that used public rights of way as
much as possible, and used rubber wheels or was substantially as
quiet as a system using rubber wheels. The system would have
routes linking neighborhoods in Northeast, Northwest, South and/
or West Seattle with downtown. The Plan also would set forth phases
of construction for the system, as well as its technology, basic
engineering and financing. System financing could be “any
combination of public or private financing, or any type of public-private
partnership;” however, no public funds could be spent without
additional voter approval. Finally, the Plan would outline the structure
of a “Seattle Popular Transit Authority,” which would succeed the
ETC and would supervise construction, operation, maintenance and
ownership of any monorail system.
Once the Plan was completed, I-53 provides that the City Council
would be required to place the Plan before City voters at the next
election, including a special election if requested by the ETC or the
ETC’s chair.
I-53 also provides for the repeal of any ordinance that had repealed
or amended the prior I-41 and that was inconsistent with I–53, and
for reinstatement of that part of I-41 that had been repealed or
amended.