Comments on: Money for Metro: King County Executive Dow Constantine says he’s creating ‘clear path’ for cities to buy more transit-service hours

By: Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam — Wed, 14 May 2014 02:36:57 +0000

Car tabs are not fully refundable. Only RTA tax portion. Which is usually less than half of total annual “fees” in Seattle.

By: AmandaKH

AmandaKH — Tue, 13 May 2014 17:48:35 +0000

@Brian. I grew up in Wheaton ;) My point is that they have service into Chicago from 40 miles away, and it’s not just the freeways. It’s interconnected and well funded. I just don’t see how people can think so insular on this topic.

By: ivan

ivan — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:48:34 +0000

I hate to break this news to you, Eric1, but your car tabs are fully deductible from your federal income tax.

By: Brian M.

Brian M. — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:33:45 +0000

@AmandaKH: I lived in the Chicago area for 12 years. You are correct about high property taxes and income taxes. However, public transit in suburbs like St. Charles is a joke — a local bus system (Pace) that makes Metro look fantastic and expensive commuter trains (Metra) that share tracks with freight trains + have limited range. Higher taxes do not necessarily equate to better service.

By: pilsner

pilsner — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:30:53 +0000

Can KC Metro jack up bus fair to help subsidize my higher property taxes/sales taxes/car tabs?

By: WSB

WSB — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:28:14 +0000

In reply to joel.

This one will be in November. Re: “not paying the cost of roads,” it’s been discussed here multiple times, but here’s just one link. Transit is far from the only subsidized means of transportation.
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http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/Do-Roads-Pay-Themselves.html

By: joel

joel — Tue, 13 May 2014 16:11:37 +0000

Parks property tax increase coming in August and more tax increases in November….why not lay them all out at once and call it a Tax Increase Buffet and let the voters pick which tax increases they want or don’t want? seems odd we now have elections 4 times a year voting on different levy, tax and car tab increases. if the city/county/state is so broke why not save money and have one election for everything? must cost money to print ballots, mail them out and collect and count them all……to the poster above who mention gas tax not paying for all of the roads….I guess this person never paid a car registration fee as I paid mine last month and there were 4 taxes for roads and others for transportation. Let’s not forget Gregoire’s 2 gas tax increases that were supposed to pay for the roads.

By: cj

cj — Tue, 13 May 2014 15:27:09 +0000

I kind of think the Metro cost for riding is already pretty high by comparison to other cities with busing I have lived in. In previous post I saw comment spam pushing for more cars and less metro. The city is mostly surrounded by water so unless we want it to look like a bowl of spaghetti in overlapping bridges [that should work out great for the next overdue earthquake] I’m thinking forcing transportation on traffic isn’t really a good idea. My husband and I used to live in Everett and 3 or more hours of transit to and from work that was sometimes stop and go was already on I-5 when he was commuting. More cars on the highways is not a solution.

By: Pay for what you use

Pay for what you use — Tue, 13 May 2014 14:36:58 +0000

To those who say that bus fares must cover the whole cost of riding the bus, let me substitute a few words:

Gas taxes must cover the whole cost of driving.

As anyone who travels, even to Canada, knows, people in other countries pay in the neighborhood of $3-5 per gallon of gas. Remarkably, most of these countries have effective public transportation systems and do not have crumbling infrastructure like bridges and roads.

So the next time anyone complains about having to subsidize bus riders, I want to know why I should be subsidizing your driving as well as paying the cost through increased air pollution and climate change.

By: Realist

Realist — Tue, 13 May 2014 12:01:31 +0000

All this bitching about fare dodging, and not one mention of the real evaders,the developers. The city allows all of this infill but would rather private developers reap incredible profits while contributing very little in comparison to other metro areas. This is crippling our city. Why aren’t we looking to those who can and should be contributing more? Why hasn’t the city council raised the fees already? This is a failure on their part, it makes one wonder who they are really working for.

By: wsguy

wsguy — Tue, 13 May 2014 05:07:03 +0000

One more time-no to car tab taxes. Plus the Bridge the Gap levy will be renewed in 2015 and raise property taxes for transit as well.

Cut the overhead and admin costs.

By: trickycoolj

trickycoolj — Tue, 13 May 2014 05:00:09 +0000

Of course there’s all after any sporting event or festival where the drivers just let waives of people on in the tunnel, “on the house folks lets keep it moving” and it’s being blasted on the scanner to just let people on even though it was after 7pm pay as you enter. When I rode the 41 daily to Northgate those buses would be sardine can crowded to the transit center and they would just open all the doors and let everyone out. I always had a PugetPass from my employer, and it made me happy to not miss the transfer about to pull away. But I’d just watch all that money go down the drain. They’re not safety hazard fare disputes, they’re just plain letting whole buses of people slide on a daily basis.
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I will genuinely never forget the driver that let me on the bus for free. I was already running late to work and made a run for the new bus stop (they had closed every other stop on my street) probably in heels, and my stupid puget pass wasn’t in it’s spot in my wallet and I kept digging and looking and realized I had put it in my coat pocket the day before in a rush to cross the street. I didn’t have cash on me to pay and I said oh well and turned around to get off and the driver said “I can’t be the bad guy and make your day worse, at least you remembered your coffee!” and he handed me a transfer slip so I could transfer at Northgate and get to work. Sweetest thing ever.

By: AmandaKH

AmandaKH — Tue, 13 May 2014 04:16:47 +0000

My friends who live in St Charles, Il (about 40 miles West of Chicago) pay $10,000 / year in property taxes on a $325,000 house. And Illinois has a state tax. We live in a major city (#15 on the Metro area list). If you want to live in a major city, you need to be able to move people around it. And how you do that is efficient, interconnected, diverse transportation options. And you pay for that with property taxes, or B&O taxes. Everything that makes cities great are paid for with taxes. If you don’t want to raise property taxes, gas taxes and sales taxes. We NEED to have a state income tax. This is getting ridiculous.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 13 May 2014 03:38:48 +0000

Watch out. See if METRO/King County loads up the overhead on charges to cities.

By: margie anderson

margie anderson — Tue, 13 May 2014 03:16:55 +0000

West Seattle since 1979, I ride the bus 4x a week (8x if you count to and fro trips separate) and I see someone get on without paying at least once each week. Last time it was a man getting on the bus, said he had no change but needed to get from downtown to just outside downtown. Bus driver said ‘sorry, it isn’t too far to walk but I can’t let you on without paying the fare.’ Man got mad, said ‘you expect me to walk there?’ and the bus driver let him on. I also see people sneaking on the back door (some clearly don’t know how the bus works, tourists, etc.). It is a problem, although the majority pay to ride.