In 2014 the voters of Seattle approved the creation of the Seattle Park District. The District has taxing authority beyond limits placed on the City of Seattle by law. This new source of tax revenue provides urgently needed stable funding for maintaining, improving, and increasing Seattle parks, community centers, and recreation programs. At the time the Park District was created Seattle Parks and Rec was suffering from $267 million worth of delayed maintenance due to lack of funds.

2016 was the first full year of the new District’s operations. A report has just been released so tax payers can see where and how their money was spent last year. 59% of the 2016 budget went towards getting a start on the huge backlog of delayed maintenance.

If you are interested in reading the report, go to this Parkways blog post and click on the 2016 Report to the Community link. The report will automatically download in PDF format.