No mention of Lynnwood tax-measure defeat at transportation meeting

The Lynnwood Transportation Benefit District board didn’t discuss the defeat of a tax proposal on the recent ballot when the board met Wednesday.

Proposition 1, which would have raised sales taxes in the city by 0.2 cents per dollar to pay for streets, sidewalks and other transportation projects, was trailing by a 53 percent to 47 percent margin in ballots counted through Wednesday, with less than a fifth of one percent of the expected final number of votes left to be counted. Snohomish County elections officials plan to release updated returns Friday afternoon. Voter turnout in Lynnwood is a little less than 49 percent.

The TBD board is made up of the seven members of the Lynnwood City Council.

Lynnwood City Councilwoman and Board member Ruth Ross said Thursday that she expects that the board will deal in January with what it will do next.

City Councilman and board member Benjamin Goodwin said Monday that he believes that voters have spoken and provided an opportunity for the board and the administration to work collaboratively.

“It is also an opportunity to develop ideas on how we can help our departments run leaner, in terms of expenses and projects and give our taxpayers what they expect and are willing to pay for,” said Goodwin, who emphasized that he was speaking only for himself.

Former Councilman Jim Smith, who had joined former Councilman Ted Hikel in writing the opposition statement in the local voters’ pamphlet, said before the Wednesday meeting that the vote on Prop. 1 showed that voter sentiment is against raising taxes.

Smith said that he also had heard that the board plans to meet in January to discuss its response to the November defeat of prop. 1.

Lynnwood Mayor Nicola Smith said Monday that the defeat of Prop. 1 would not affect the city’s 2015 budget, which already has been set.