One would think that the Mercer Island City Council had a mitigation plan in place before accepting a $10.1 million settlement with Sound Transit. If not, how could the city agree to a settlement without knowing how much traffic safety and mitigation programs will cost? Instead, the city convened a community meeting on June 22 to discuss what can be funded (and did not give much notice since the Mercer Island Reporter published the notice on June 21). Is there a specific plan or are we just going to develop one that uses the $10.1 million?

Furthermore, the city has imposed a “temporary” increase to our utility tax, from 5.3 percent to 8 percent, to generate $700,000 for Interstate-90 litigation and related costs. Why a utility tax? What does I-90 litigation have to do with utilities? Or was this just a convenient way to raise taxes without public scrutiny? Now that a settlement has been reached with Sound Transit, will this temporary tax increase be rescinded?

Ronald Kaufman

Mercer Island