Forward Thrust

{{short description|Series of bond ballot initiatives in King County, Washington}}

File:Powell Barnett and others looking plans for Powell Barnett Park, 1970.jpg and three Seattle parks officials look over plans for Powell Barnett Park, one of many parks funded by the Forward Thrust bonds]]

The Forward Thrust ballot initiatives were a series of bond propositions put to the voters of King County, Washington in 1968 and 1970, designed by a group called the Forward Thrust Committee. Seven of the twelve propositions in 1968 were successful; four of the remaining propositions were repackaged for a vote in 1970, when they were defeated in the darkening local economic climate of the Boeing Bust.Patrick McRoberts, [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2168 King County voters on Forward Thrust bonds approve stadium and aquarium and nix transit on February 13, 1968], HistoryLink, January 1, 1999. Accessed online 19 July 2008.HistoryLink Staff, [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3961 Voters reject rail transit plan and three other Forward Thrust bond proposals on May 19, 1970], HistoryLink, September 19, 2002, corrected April 15, 2003. Accessed online 19 July 2008. One of the most visible accomplishments of the Forward Thrust levy was the eventual building of the Kingdome, ultimately the first home of the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners.

The initiatives were variously under the aegis of METRO (the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle), King County, and the city of Seattle. (METRO and King County merged in 1992.) The Forward Thrust Committee was founded by James R. Ellis and effectively disbanded shortly after the 1970 defeats. It disbanded formally in 1974.[http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/findaids/docs/papersrecords/ForwardThrustSeattleWash1707.xml Preliminary Guide to the Forward Thrust Records 1966-1970], University of Washington Library. Accessed online 19 July 2008.{{Cite web |title=Forward Thrust records - Archives West |url=https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv52255 |access-date=2022-07-02 |website=archiveswest.orbiscascade.org}} Seattle Mayor Dorm Braman was also a strong backer of the 1968 initiatives.

The US$118 million passed in 1968 in support of the Department of Parks and Recreation was, at the time, the largest parks and recreation bond issue ever passed in the United States.{{Citation

| last =Jones

| first =Nard

| author-link =Nard Jones

| year = 1972

| title =Seattle

| place =Garden City, New York

| publisher =Doubleday

| isbn =0-385-01875-4

| page = 228

}}

The failure of the rapid transit propositions meant that a nearly $900 million federal funding earmark that had been secured by U.S. Senator Warren Magnuson if local bonds passed went instead to fund Atlanta, Georgia's MARTA.