Yet another county that passed I-695 has passed a sales tax increase to refund a transit system.

Last week Clallam County voters approved a 3% increase in the sales tax to fund Clallam Transit. The vote was a landslide with over 63% of the people voting in favor. The measure failed in only 2 precincts.

Clallam county passed I-695 with a 56% approval rate.

-- Patrick (patrick1142@yahoo.com), May 04, 2000

Answers

And you may get your chance to vote on a raise in King County too. Of course you already pay $1 of every hundred you make for transit in sales taxes, not to mention money diverted from the state budget.

County considers sales tax increase to help fund Metro; 0.3 percent hike would fill $100M dent in bus system 2000-05-03 by Jeff Switzer\n and Mike Ullmann Journal Reporters

http://www.southcountyjournal.com/sited/retr_story.pl/18646

Last fall's $30 car tabs initiative might lead county officials to ask voters for a sales tax increase they say would cost the average family about $50 more per year. Officials at a county transportation summit yesterday began talking about how to deal with next year's $100 million gap in Metro bus service funding. The Legislature granted counties the power to increase sales taxes with voter approval to offset losses in transit funding from Initiative 695. King County could ask as soon as this fall for a 0.3 percent increase: 3 cents on a $10 purchase. When I-695 passed, Metro lost more than $100 million a year, about one-third of the operating budget that keeps buses on the roads. The Legislature came up with an interim $36 million to help Metro for this year only. If Metro can't find a $100-million annual replacement, beginning next year it will start cutting 1 million of the system's 3.3 million hours of bus service. ``I'm pretty excited about the (county) sales tax,'' said panelist Joan McBride, a Kirkland councilwoman. ``Fifty dollars per family is the price of a couple of pizzas -- to make sure the pizzas get to you -- is a small price to pay.'' Raising the sales tax -- ALREADY AMONG THE HIGHEST IN THE COUNTRY -- would fail at the ballot box without a plan to fix regional congestion, many officials said yesterday. ``Transit is important, but the rest of the system is in crisis,'' said County Councilman Rob McKenna, a Bellevue Republican. ``People want to see a comprehensive approach to the transportation system. You can't just throw it on the ballot.'' McKenna said he won't support putting a sales tax hike on either of this year's fall ballots because there isn't enough time to plan a congestion solution for the region. ``You can't go to voters over and over again,'' McKenna said. ``This time it's for buses, the next time for the bridge, the next time for 405 and then road capacity... ``We need a vision, not a project list.'' County Executive Ron Sims agrees. The county needs to first get its act together on fixing congestion in the region, said an especially passionate Sims. A new sales tax to prevent transit service cuts should only be a small part of a larger plan, he said. And starting with yesterday's meeting, he's working to rally support for creating that plan. ``We are the richest generation in the history of King County, and the most affluent,'' Sims told officials. ``There has never been a time or the resources to do more things.'' PANELISTS AT YESTERDAY'S SUMMIT SAID VOTERS ARE TREMENDOUSLY FRUSTRATED WITH TRAFFIC CONGESTION, AND ALSO HAVE A LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN GOVERNMENT. THEY ARE ALSO WARY OF TAX INCREASES. THE SALES TAX HERE VARIES SLIGHTLY FROM CITY TO CITY, BUT IT IS ALREADY A SIGNIFICANT CHUNK OF MOST PURCHASES IN KING COUNTY. In Bellevue, for example, most purchases add an 8.6 percent sales tax, although restaurant meals max out at 9.1 percent. Of the 8.6 percent, the biggest chunk -- 6.5 percent -- goes to the state. TRANSIT ALREADY TAKES THE NEXT-LARGEST PIECE: A FULL 1 PERCENT GOES EITHER TO METRO OR TO SOUND TRANSIT FOR EXPRESS BUSES AND LIGHT RAIL.

-- Craig Carson (craigcar@crosswinds.net), May 04, 2000.

And in an editorial, another voice heard from. Kind of makes you wonder what would happen if the overwhelming majority of auto users held the "transportation choices" people hostage? What would happen if they voted down all transit funding until the roads were fixed?

From the Eastside Business Journal 



Editorial Opinion 
A Metro-only tax increase is a no go
Pat Mccarrell 
It's disconcerting to hear since Jan. 1 how everyone wants to give 
the state's property owners a tax break, then the Legislature comes 
away from its latest session without approving one. 



The reasoning? Politicians couldn't agree on how big a cut to give, 
so they opted not to give one at all. 



Now we hear about a plan to increase our already enormous sales tax. 



The big story coming out of a transportation summit in Bellevue this 
week is a proposed increase in the King County sales tax to fund 
Metro service. The Legislature granted counties the right to raise 
their sales taxes to offset transit funding losses from the passage 
of Initiative 695. 



Supporters are no doubt counting on the fact that the majority of 
King County voters actually voted against 695. They must hope that 
the voters who disliked I-695 didn't like it because it would gut 
Metro. Then those same voters would likely pass a tax designed to 
fund bus service, the thinking goes. But the problem is that Metro 
affects too few voters in the county. 



The initiative had a number of provisions that voters didn't like, 
all of which were apparently worth putting up with in order to do 
away with the hated car tax. 



For argument's sake let's assume that all Seattle voters disliked the 
outcome of 695 that created a diminished Metro. That still won't get 
a Metro tax passed. Seattle is not where the majority of King County 
voters live. More of them live outside the city - most of that group 
is on the Eastside where a Metro bus sighting is about as common as a 
$100,000 home sale. It happens, but few witnesses can later be found. 



East King County voters were far more likely to fear I-695 for other 
transportation issues the initiative hurt - expanded trans-Lake 
Washington transportation, improved capacity on Interstate 405, and 
numerous other of the county's worst transportation nightmares. 



While a solid public transit program is needed throughout the county, 
throwing a Metro-only tax increase on the ballot this year is a bad 
idea. 



Better to bundle together funding that addresses the transportation 
issues facing citizens in the entire county, then ask voters to make 
sacrifices that will improve the issues that impact each of them. 
Just like with I-695, each voter will likely find something he 
dislikes about such a tax increase. But a well-crafted proposal will 
have a provision that each voter finds important enough to be able to 
put up with the unwanted provisions. 



Metro's funding was patched up for the year in the Legislature's 
current budget, but it needs to find another $100 million to avoid 
massive cuts next year. But the county has other transportation needs 
that have to be addressed as well. 



Pat McCarrell is editor of Eastside Business Journal. Reach him at 
pmccarrell@amcity.com. 

Zowie's right! Screw Transit! Build Roads!

Mark

-- Mark Stilson (mark842@hotmail.com), May 08, 2000.