Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has rolled out a proposal that would raise the city's combined sales tax to 10.7 percent in order to fund a significant expansion of bus service. If approved by voters, that rate would rank among the highest sales taxes in the entire nation, a point that has quickly turned the plan into a hot topic across the city.
According to Wilson, the proposal would allow the city to expand its bus service in Seattle, including adding much more frequency and broader geographic coverage. The stated goal is to make the transit system far more useful to more people, giving residents better options to move around the city by bus.
The funding mechanism, however, has drawn scrutiny because the sales tax is regressive, meaning it falls hardest on low-income and middle-income residents. Wilson openly acknowledged that the sales tax is a regressive tax, but she argued that the investment is worth it because of the benefits she believes expanded service would bring to the community.
Wilson framed the choice as one shaped by limits set higher up. She described the city and state tax system as very regressive, and said the options the state gives Seattle for funding its transportation benefit district are very limited, leaving the sales tax as the main tool the city has been able to use for this purpose.
Asked about buses that often run empty and whether the demand is really there yet, Wilson essentially answered that if the city builds the service, riders will follow. She said she sees better frequency and more routes as good for the overall community, and pointed to her own background in transit as part of why she is pushing the plan.
She also tied the proposal to the cost of car ownership, saying that owning a car is very expensive, roughly 12,000 dollars a year before maintenance and the price of gas. In her view, expanding bus routes would give people the option to get around the entire city without depending on a private vehicle.
Ultimately, the decision will rest with the voters. Wilson sounded confident that Seattle residents would support the measure, noting that they had backed something similar in the past, even during the pandemic, when far fewer people were moving around. Whether that confidence holds up at the ballot box remains to be seen.