Apparently Roads Aren't Free

This is a shocking discovery.

Seattle now spends most of its $29 million annual paving budget on repairing or rebuilding roadways. If approved by voters, the new car-tab fee would increase that by $4 million a year. That would still leave the city with only half of what it says it needs just to keep the streets from deteriorating further.

The problem is common nationwide. King County's paving budget has declined to the point where officials are considering letting some residential streets revert to gravel. Still, other cities have fared better than Seattle. Bellevue, for example, reports that it has no backlog of deferred maintenance.