http://www.billbryant.info Bill Bryant campaign for Seattle Port Commision Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:17:49 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en People often ask me about how the Port of Seattle is doing in these tough times. This past year, the port commission worked very closely with port CEO Yoshitani and port staff to eliminate programs that had outlived usefulness, to cut payroll (6%), to increase employee medical contributions and to scrutinize ... http://www.billbryant.info/2009/12/how-is-the-port-of-seattle-doing/ While some governments are talking about raising taxes and tapping reserves, the Port of Seattle has done the opposite. In our 2010 budget, we cut taxes and set up a new transportation/infrastructure reserve fund to start covering known, future liabilities. During 2009, the port commission emphasized the need for the port ... http://www.billbryant.info/2009/12/first-time-in-decades-maybe-ever-port-cuts-taxes/ In just the two years I have served on the commission, with the support of the entire commission, port CEO Tay Yoshitani and port staff, we have been able to transform the Port of Seattle from what I think was one of the more arrogant and insular organizations to the ... http://www.billbryant.info/2009/11/reforming-the-port/ The Port of Seattle, as the largest property owner on Elliott Bay, has a special responsibility to ensure its activities contribute to the restoration of Puget Sound. While the ports of Seattle and Tacoma over the last decade have invested to increase their cargo capacity, and while increasing cargo capacity would ... http://www.billbryant.info/2009/11/puget-sound-restoration/ Because of our port’s marine cargo facilities, its grain terminal, its bulk cargo facilities, industrial lands and Fisherman’s Terminal, King County has a vibrant maritime industrial cluster of companies. According to a March 2009 study by professors at Seattle University and the University of Washington, King County’s maritime industries employ almost ... http://www.billbryant.info/2009/11/maritime-jobs-and-competitive-threats/ About 70% of the cargo arriving in Puget Sound’s ports is destined for the American Mid-West and that cargo will move through whichever port (British Columbia, Puget Sound, California, Panama Canal) that will get it to Chicago or St. Louis the fastest. While the ports of Seattle and Tacoma have spent ... http://www.billbryant.info/2009/11/the-connection-between-traffic-freight-and-jobs/ The Port of Seattle generates over 111,000 jobs in the King County area. Those jobs are in businesses that exist because passengers and cargo move through SeaTac and Elliot Bay. That makes the port one of our region’s largest job generators. Now, the port itself isn’t employing 111,000 people; it only ... http://www.billbryant.info/2009/11/jobs/ The Port of Seattle is probably the only government in Washington State that held taxes at the same level or lowered them for 2009.  The Port of Seattle will collect the same amount of property tax revenue in 2009 that it did in 2008, and since the county's inventory of ... http://www.billbryant.info/2009/04/budget-and-tax-levy/ The Port of Seattle's maritime business is responsible for over 35,000 family wage jobs in the King County area. The greatest threat to these jobs, and our port, is government-supported port projects in Canada, Mexico and Panama Canal being able to deliver products to and from Asia and the American ... http://www.billbryant.info/2009/04/competitive-threats-to-jobs/ Bill Bryant talks about his vote to dredge PCB contaminated mud from port terminals and deposit it in a landfill rather than dumping it elsewhere in Puget Sound which would have been acceptable under current regulations. Watch the King-TV interview http://www.billbryant.info/2009/04/bill-supports-removing-pcb-mud/