Street repairs endorsed

The Spokane city debate over a $117 million street repair measure and pending layoffs in city government played out in front of the City Council on Monday as the council voted to give an endorsement to the street measure.

“The roads are a mess. They are getting worse,” said Councilwoman Cherie Rodgers. “We just simply can’t go on.”

Voters are being asked on Nov. 2 to approve the property tax measure, which calls for the sale of municipal bonds to raise the money for 10 years worth of improvements.

At the same time, the city’s general fund services of police, fire, parks, libraries and streets could be cut by $10 million to $12 million for 2005.

Councilman Bob Apple cast the only vote against the street measure endorsement. He said he disagrees with the proposal because it involves the payment of nearly $41 million in interest charges on the 20-year life of the bonds. That cost would be in addition to the $117 million in street funding.

“This method, I think, does a disservice to the community,” Apple said. He favors levying a charge on parking spaces in the city to spread the cost among motorists and businesses.

The ballot measure would pay for reconstruction or repair of 37 miles of arterial streets, 52 miles of residential streets and other projects. In all, as many as 110 miles of streets would get fixed, about half of an estimated $200 million backlog of rutted, broken streets in Spokane.

The cost of the measure is estimated at $68 a year on a $100,000 home.

Former City Councilman Steve Eugster said the crisis in the city’s general fund creates a possibility that future mayors or city councils could use street bond money to supplant existing street maintenance money now in the general fund.

He called on the City Council to approve a resolution specifying that the bond issue money could be used only for the projects identified through a citizen panel and series of community meetings earlier this year. Eugster offered to draft the resolution and submit it for council consideration.

Rodgers and other council members said they would support the resolution, which could come up for a vote next week.

The council also has established a new Citizens Streets Advisory Commission to oversee street department spending and plans for future street work. The commission would be given responsibility to monitor bond issue spending if the measure passes.

Councilman Al French said any suspicion that the city has enough money now to repair streets should be dispelled by the current crisis in the general fund.

The mayor and council are expected to cut between $10 million and $12 million from the budget next year, and nearly 100 jobs may be at stake in the city’s police and fire departments alone. Smaller internal services departments reportedly are on the chopping block.

“Everyone’s ox is going to get gored on this one, I’ll tell you,” French said. “It’s not going to be a pretty budget.”

A group of senior citizens attended Monday’s meeting to argue against the possibility of cuts in park department funding for senior centers next year. Representatives of the group spoke during the public forum session at the end of Monday’s meeting.

Sandy Smith, a city resident, said the street bond measure is unfair because it asks property owners to pay the bill to fix streets for drivers. Some homeowners don’t even own cars, she said.

“This is not a fair tax,” she said. She recommended a tax on studded tires.

Council members said the state allows only one option currently for city street repair, and that’s a voter-approved property tax. Two years ago, voters turned down a $50 million street measure with a 44 percent yes vote. Property tax measures, including the Nov. 2 proposition, require a 60 percent approval.

“There are no other revenue sources for us to repair our streets,” said Councilman Brad Stark.

Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch said the city has no authority to collect money from residents who live outside the city.

However, proponents of the bond measure have said that noncity residents contribute to city streets through state gasoline taxes, sales taxes and state highway funding that goes for some of the city’s heaviest-traveled arterials, including Trent Avenue, West Francis Avenue and Division Street, all of which are state highways.