Parks Levy: Voters giving a yea to taxes for open land

"It's King County," said Sandeep Kaushik, who headed the pro-levy campaigns. "The voters do really care about the outdoors. They care about recreational opportunities. They care about environmental protection."

Each of the levies would run for six years and each would cost the owner of a $400,000 home $20 a year. Each is expected to raise about $110 million over the six years.

Voters passed the four-year, 4.9-cent levy in 2003. Before that, the county covered the costs of running the parks out of its general tax revenues. But a regional economic downtown and voter-approved restrictions on the growth of property-tax revenue squeezed the overall county budget, and County Executive Ron Sims forcibly weaned parks off the general fund.

The levy took up much of the slack. In addition, the county offloaded dozens of parks within city limits to the cities and cut both the operations budget and the parks work force by a third.

The parks department also launched an effort to generate revenue from deals with private companies, such as the sale to Group Health of the naming rights to the velodrome at Marymoor Park near Redmond, an agreement with Cirque du Soleil for staging shows on an asphalt pad the department installed at Marymoor, and the granting of a concession to Subway to sell sandwiches at the aquatic center in Federal Way.

The current levy covers a little more than half the department's 2007 operations and maintenance budget of $23 million, which is still almost $2.5 million below the 2002 budget. The commercial tie-ins account for about a fifth of the total and continuing contributions from the general fund take care of most of the rest.

The new levy is intended to restore maintenance to the 2002 level. It will raise considerably more than the expiring levy because it is larger and it will start from a higher base of property valuation countywide.

Critics of the proposals say it's unfair for city residents to pay for county parks in unincorporated areas while also being taxed for city parks.

Those on the other side argue that county parks improve the quality of life for all residents and note that the second levy would funnel 20 percent of the revenue raised to urban trails and an equal amount to the Seattle zoo.

There was no organized opposition to the proposals. The Parks and Recreation Coalition, a campaign committee, spent more than $200,000 to win approval of the measures, largely on direct mailings to voters.