King County Council delays Metro-fee decision till August 15th

| Transportation | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

After about two hours of public testimony and a 40-minute recess to talk, the King County Council has just decided to put off till the last minute its decision on the proposed $20/year car-tab fee that County Executive Dow Constantine says would save Metro from huge cuts. They’ll reconvene on August 15th (as explained here), which is their last chance to get it on the ballot, although Councilmember Julia Patterson suggested there were “other” possibilities to “explore” in the meantime.

P.S. Since they’ve extended their decisionmaking time – if you hadn’t commented yet, here’s how to do it online.

godofthebasement July 25, 2011 (7:14 pm)

COWARDS!

westseattledood July 25, 2011 (7:50 pm)

They also are concurrently analyzing the “ride free zone” downtown and whether their current arrangement of $400K the city pays them for that is sufficient.

Maybe not so much cowardice as shrewd hardball with the city, eh?

Diane July 25, 2011 (8:10 pm)

oh geez; and what day is the election?

WSB July 25, 2011 (8:38 pm)

Day after, though many if not most will have voted by then. There are only two county council races on the primary ballot: Joe McDermott/Diana Toledo/Goodspaceguy in District 8 (our area), and Jane Hague/John Creighton/Richard Mitchell/Patsy Bonincontri in District 6.

Jasperblu July 25, 2011 (8:40 pm)

Sigh.

Diane July 25, 2011 (8:47 pm)

and is Jane Hague one of the holdouts?

WSB July 25, 2011 (9:04 pm)

Though the County Council is technically nonpartisan, she is described as one of the four Republicans who had been holding together against the fee, though not necessarily against putting it on the ballot. However, PubliCola describes her tonight as a potential swing vote:
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http://publicola.com/2011/07/25/king-county-council-defers-metro-decision-until-august-15

Aman July 25, 2011 (9:22 pm)

What is the “Big Deal” about putting the issue on the ballot? Isn’t that what ballot’s are for?

Diane July 25, 2011 (9:36 pm)

the “Big Deal” is about a million dollars to put it on the ballot

metrognome July 25, 2011 (9:37 pm)

interestingly, the Seattle Times just endorsed Hague’s challenger and also came out against the car tab increase (based on suspect info from an extreme right-wing ‘think’ tank). Wonder if that will change Hague’s position. Von Reichbauer has often been the R who sides with the D’s in a swing vote.
And, the County Council may be non-partisan now, but when they engineered the Metro takeover after the federal lawsuit, the Rs went against their word and made the Council partisan. It wasn’t until later that the Charter revision to make it ‘non-partisan’ (is if) was approved by the voters. While it is no longer partisan in name, controversial decisions still pretty much fall along a partisan split.

Aman July 26, 2011 (7:38 am)

Thank you for the information. Oh my! ONE-MILLION DOLLARS to simply add this issue to a ballot so it can be put to a vote? How can this possibly be? I cannot comprehend the process which would cost so much.

WSB July 26, 2011 (9:05 am)

Aman, that’s why I haven’t parroted that part of it – I can’t find the substantiation (yet – I haven’t exhausted all inquiry options) for why adding another issue to a REGULAR election will cost a million bucks. I understand the cost when people are arguing over whether to have a SPECIAL election on an issue. If I get an answer, I’ll add it here! – TR

Yardark July 26, 2011 (8:57 am)

Whatever it may cost to put this issue on the ballot and host all of these “public input” sessions, it’s a complete waste of extremely limited taxpayer resources. I’m curious if Jane Hague and the other holdouts will be paying this cost themselves or if they expect us to pay that for them.

JTK July 26, 2011 (9:51 am)

Why is it up to the people that drive cars to get the busses out of hock? why not make the Bikers pay $20 a year?!?!… We already pay our part for driving cars… it’s called PARKING!… why do we the drivers get hit with more fees? they should UP the per ride fee then…… I don’t see the problem here…

datamuse July 26, 2011 (10:44 am)

JTK, if we drivers really paid the full cost of driving cars, hardly anyone could afford to drive. Our gas taxes, licensing fees, and parking payments don’t even begin to cover the cost of road maintenance. So no, we don’t “pay our part”. Far from it.
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If that doesn’t sway you, consider what would happen to traffic if all the people who ride the bus now had to drive instead because transit isn’t available or has become so expensive that it’s a wash. You think congestion is bad NOW…

WSJEEP July 26, 2011 (11:16 am)

The Seattle city council is the worst, they never choice anything.

WSB July 26, 2011 (11:31 am)

WSJeep, this would be the County Council, not the City Council. Two separate bodies; a few County Council members represent districts including areas of our city, but several represent areas of the county outside Seattle.

ride July 26, 2011 (1:30 pm)

On TV news last week, talking about the Metro-fee for busses, a driver in Seattle said “Why should I pay for busses I don’t need then?”

Made me expand the thought to the super rich and corporations.

Transportation? infrastructure? People?
“Why should we pay for America we don’t need them?”

Ex-Westwood Resident July 26, 2011 (1:57 pm)

Right now the city, county and state subsidize Metro, Sound Transit and Link Light Rail anywhere from 70% to 85%. To ride the LLR from SEATAC to Downtown, in actual cost is about $23.00, yet riders pay (if they do, it’s on the “Honor System”) about $3.00. Instead of increasing the fees on those that DON’T use these why not decrease the subsidies and increase the fares.

I’m not talking about a massive increase here but make them pay for a greater portion of the cost, say 50%.

datamuse July 26, 2011 (4:23 pm)

Where do you think those subsidies come from, EWR? Transit riders pay taxes too.

Nono July 26, 2011 (6:25 pm)

Transit riders do not pay enough of the cost of the trips they take.

The fares need to raised.

The reason they want to keep it off the ballot is that it will fail.

If this $20 car tab tax passes this year, its just a matter of months until they ask for more.

Most people I see waiting in line to get on the bus are either smoking or listening to their iPhone or iPod. So they have extra money to waste.

Raise the fares, make it fair.

metrognome July 26, 2011 (7:06 pm)

for those of you who are complaining about paying when you don’t ride Metro … you are already paying voter-approved sales tax to fund Metro; people without children pay property taxes to fund public schools; people pay for public libraries and parks whether they use them or not; people pay for police, fire and medic services whether they call 911 or not. Its called infrastructure and its to create a liveable community.
Otherwise, it is ‘pay as you go’ for govt services, which means many services will not be there because there is no money to invest in infrastructure or privatization which means private, for-profit corporations will charge whatever they want for these services. If all the people who ride Metro started driving, you would spend way more time in traffic and pay way more in taxes for new roads (that would require destroying private homes for right-of-way); your favorite restaurant would probably go out of business because they can’t hire workers if the workers can’t get there; you high school kid probably won’t be able to find a summer job unless you drive them or buy a car …
And, the ‘congestion reduction fee’ has a 2 year limit.

godofthebasement July 26, 2011 (7:20 pm)

Nono, I don’t want to get into the fine details of everything you wrote is wrong, but this will go to the ballot because our “leaders” are to chickenspit to pass this, and you’ll be eating crow when it passes overwhelmingly, which it will.

sundown and all is not well July 26, 2011 (7:31 pm)

for all the clamoring going on here on the wsb for raising bus fares, they already have been raised a few times over the last couple years.

Been There July 26, 2011 (9:56 pm)

@ metrognome – Thank you for adding rational, intelligent and sane thinking and commentary.

DC July 26, 2011 (11:45 pm)

The car-tab fee is just another attempt by unions to stick their hands in the pockets of tax payers. Most of the changes that would need to be made with out the extra car-tab revenue are cuts of ineffecieny route and other waste reduction that Metro’s own strategic planning committee recommended doing anyway.

ivan July 27, 2011 (9:30 am)

I don’t use the buses at all, and I am so totally voting for this. Fewer buses on the roads means more cars, more congestion, and more time spent in traffic jams that we will never get back. Come on, people. This is a no-brainer. Our lives will be worse, and not better, if this doesn’t pass.

wsguy July 27, 2011 (9:35 am)

If it goes on the ballot I sincerely doubt it will be “overwhelmingly” approved. Reference the initiative addressing car tab fees in the recent past.

There has already been one $20 fee added to car tabs, the city wants to add another $80. It seems to defy logic to slam through $120 in new fees in this economic climate. And if these fees go through how long until the next tax crazy politician decides to add more? Once that door has been opened and people accept car tab fees it will be a continual trip to the trough for tax hungry politicians.

This is not just about one $20 fee.

What is the threshold drivers are supposed to pay?

$120 if everything passes this year?
$200 – $300 – $500 because drivers are so flush with cash? After all no drivers are barely scraping by or on fixed incomes.

Or do we go back to the days when people with RV’s (a lot of whom were retirees) were paying $3000 -$5000 a year to license their rigs?

Face it this is all about social engineering trying to get people out of their cars and if you happen to have to drive then you don’t fit the utopian vision unrelated to reality that local politicians have in this city and county.

By all means if something is not working raise a tax – add a new fee – works every time right?

datamuse July 27, 2011 (12:02 pm)

But wsguy, if they get everyone out of their cars then who will fund transit with car-tab fees?

Sonia July 27, 2011 (2:21 pm)

Why not raise the bus rates? How many big buses run at night or weekends that are mostly empty?
I used to live in WS. Check out the # of riders in WS that do not even fill a bus. The only good route in WS at night or weekends is the Foot Ferry van, maybe they should consider using more vans on nights & weekends when ridership is lower. Gas savings! Dollar savings!

JTK July 27, 2011 (2:34 pm)

I think people are missing the point…. it is not the responsibility of the CAR DRIVERS to pay for people that BUS. People that ride the bus would still ride the bus with a slight increase in price…..They wouldn’t Buy or lease a car if their bus payment went up $0.50 or a $1.00 per ride….. Good Lord!…

miws July 27, 2011 (3:23 pm)

Well said, metrognome….

Mike

tarriers181 August 10, 2011 (11:02 am)

I also agree with the point that mertrognome is making. The fact is that buses are a way to imporve our community. Pulbic transportation affects so many people whether they ride the bus or not. I think that it is important to remember that with bus cuts, many more people are going to have to drive to work. Thus traffic is going to get even worse!