Tuesday night’s public hearing on Metro’s budget issues and the Congestion Reduction Charge drew an epic line of citizens waiting to take their turns providing testimony. You can continue to provide public comment online here, by the way. The Seattle Transit Blog’s Twitter Feed provided a blow by blow account of the night’s testimony.
Seattle Times covered the meeting here and lays out what comes next:
State lawmakers gave county officials the authority this year to charge an extra $20 for car tabs — which would provide $50 million over two years — to help Metro. When combined with reserve funds, it’s enough to largely maintain existing service, Metro says.
King County’s nine-member council has two options. By a simple majority vote, it could put the car-tab request before voters. Or, a supermajority of six could enact the new fee without going to the voters.
DO IT, FFS! And our family owns 2 cars … (one is a collector item, garaged and not used often – please don’t roast me!)
Public transport is part of the life blood of a thriving city/society …
Hopefully Tim Eyman will keep his sweaty paws off it (what a despicable individual).
Such bullshit! They can not continue raising taxes and fees on those who can least afford it while the richest people in our state pay less and less. What in the fuck do Democrats NOT understand about “Tax the Rich”?
They’re having strikes, riots, and revolutions in Europe and the Middle East because people there are sick and tired of this crap. Here, we do whatever we’re told.
I wish George Bush was still president. Not much would be different, but at least we’d be protesting.
Why is there NO talk of a fare increase? Why penalize those dependent on cars? Why not share this increase by a 25 cent increase in fare. It’s JUST 25 cents per ride right? Just like it’s JUST 20 bucks on a tab… I pray for this to go to vote, and I pray for Tim Eyman to rescue us if it does go through. I do ride the bus, I pay my fare, I pay my taxes. I watch people daily not pay their fare on my route and the drivers doing nothign to collect it. I am fed up. I am tired of officials deciding to tax us because they can’t do their jobs at optimizing and running a lean business. ENOUGH TAXING.
Fares have just gone up this year. Fare increases hurt the poorest people in our city. If you support fare increases you are in support of putting a serious crunch on the working class.
Already costs $2.50 to ride the bus. Even if you only need to go a mile. That’s expensive enough. $20 per year is a paltry thing to ask to keep an entire transit system in operation. This is a no-brainer, the council should approve this tax and move on to problems that are more challenging to solve.
25 cents a ride x 2 times a day is 50 cents a day, which for the average bus commuter is what, $2.50 a week? Multiply that by 4 for a month, and that’s $10 per month extra, multiply THAT by 12 and that’s what, roughly $120 a year? Of course there are holidays and occasions when people ride on weekends, but these are just rough estimates. Given that calculation, it seems like paying $20 extra on car tabs would be financially easier for those of us who own cars AND ride metro (I own a car that is garaged 90% of the time, I seriously put less than 1000 miles on it a year, no joke, and I would rather pay an extra $20 on my yearly tabs than $100+ a year to ride metro).
I know people are griping on both sides but I think that given the economic situation, we need to try to compromise and help each other out rather than playing a “he should / she should” game. I’m happy to help subsidize bus riders since a lot of them can’t afford cars and/or aren’t capable of driving at all to begin with.
Pleade don’t forget that the city JUST TACKED ON 20 bucks three months ago. If this passes the tabs on my car will have increased by 50% in just 4 months. McMoron is proposing 80 bucks on to tabs for short falls as well, if that goes through it will be 110% increase on car tabs in 6 months. ENOUGH. Again, pray for vote, or Tim Eyman, enough.
And yippy for you if your car just sits in your garage 90%. Sell it or zip it. There are folks that are not served by reliable bus service or routes in this city that are forced in to their cars, we are penalizing that working class here as well. Bus people against car people if a fun debate to watch.
Your point here is exactly what the issue is – the more we cut funding for public transit, the more people will be forced into cars or worse yet, the people who don’t have the option for cars get penalized. I understand that car owners are hurting, and BTW I make a conscious choice to walk/bus (it’s a lot more convenient for me to drive but I choose not to, to save on gas and try to lessen my impact on traffic).
It sucks all around for everyone as the cost of living continues to rise in every aspect, but I think an additional tab fee OVERALL hurts less than raising bus fares once again. I’m looking at this as a lesser of two evils here, not necessarily as a handout/charity/subsidizing program for people who “have the choice” to ride the bus (because frankly I think a lot of people would rather drive if they could, but the fact is a lot of people don’t even get to choose).
Oh and I’m probably selling my car at the end of the year to get a scooter :) but that’s neither here nor there, and if I sell my car then I won’t be able to pitch in the extra $ to help with the bus routes, hah! (what was the point of telling me to sell my car again? I like having a car when I want to use it, and I didn’t complain about paying extra on my tabs)
Just as long as the $20 (or the $80 for that matter) goes to Metro and the potholes and not for anymore of those stupid green bike squares. Or anything else…
F’In throwback from the 70’s. In NYC do you think there’s a free zone? Or 1 hour passes? This shit costs money, and I for one am sick of footing the bill. Theres no reason some of these routes need to run so often, tack another 5 min to the #10 and #12, nobody will notice.
Do you mean you won’t notice because you don’t ride the f’n bus.
There are many things I am sick of footing the bill for that your lazy ass uses. But I am not the one being the whiny bitch like you.
Also, a reminder, we are not in NYC.
Yes. You can get day and multi day passes in NYC.
Yes, in a way you did cause the budget shortfall. Not enough sales tax revenue was collected so the county now has a deficit. The state of Washington has resisted an income tax (mostly because governors view this as poison) but if we don’t want the sales tax which in the city of Seattle along with state and county taxes is just short of 10% and more than that for meals at restaurants. Government services don’t run on good will they count on revenue to fund services. No revenue no service. It’s that simple.
Metro fares have gone up three times in the last few years. If you can’t afford the $20 extra per year you shouldn’t be driving. $20 won’t even fill most cars’ gas tanks full.
Your argument about affording it is stupid.
That $20 maybe the fill up some person needs to get to their job.
Let me get this straight. You are sick of “footing to the bill” for a mode of transportation that is better for the environment and serves mainly low-income and elderly people? Yeah, that is a burden. It sucks to care about other people and the world we live in. What a pain in the ass.
Frank … you’re an ****** …
The people who can LEAST afford things take the BUS … And for all car owners out there … the more people we can get taking the bus benefits YOU the car drivers … less congestion … for LESS money.
Like $20 per car is gonna install new Lexus-Lanes on all our freeways … sheesh! :P
We do NOT have a spending problem … we have a revenue problem because a bunch of selfish people follow Tim Eyman’s line of reasoning and want more, more, more and pay less, less, less.
When did the US become so incredibly selfish, self-centered and plain mean?
We *all* benefit from having a strong society (and in my books that means health, education, shelter and transport) … I think it’s incredibly sad that so many people nowadays are shortsighted and greedy.
Then they can take the bus now! See how that works? But someone whose bus is cut CAN’T drive to work if they don’t have a car! Get it?!
When did the US become so incredibly selfish, self-centered and plain mean?
I believe it started with the genocide of the native population of this here land we’re living on.