It’s time to Save Metro.
Funding for Metro has been a series of stopgap, temporary, or volatile measures for as long as most of us can remember. Metro depends heavily on revenues from sales tax, which plummeted with the recession, and we’ve been struggling since 2009 to fill the gap.
Most recently, in 2011, King County Council approved a temporary congestion reduction charge (CRC), a $20 annual vehicle licensing fee that bought us two years of steady funding, along with a directive for Metro to improve efficiency and productivity. Collection of the charge, however, ends in spring of 2014.
So here we are again. Between the expiration of the CRC and the declining sales tax revenues, Metro is looking at a projected funding shortfall of $75 million just to maintain current service through 2015.
Without a new, stable funding source, Metro will be forced to make a 17 percent – that’s 600,000 hours – reduction in transit service. If you live in King County, it’s more likely than not that bus service in your neighborhood will be affected. Metro’s current projected impacts show reduced service for 86 routes and eliminate another 65 routes altogether.
So, what now? Monday, May 13th, is the start of the legislative special session. There’s still an opportunity for the legislature to give King County local funding options, including giving voters the chance to pass a motor vehicle excise tax that would be split between transit and roads.
This is our last chance to save Metro. We need to tell our legislators to approve a local funding option, and Tuesday, May 14th, is the time to speak up. King County Council is holding a hearing at 4:00 p.m. at Union Station, where the public is invited to give testimony about how transit service cuts will affect them.
So rally the troops and come testify. Tell your representatives how bus cuts are unacceptable, and that we want a permanent funding solution for Metro.
Can’t make it in person? Submit your testimony online.
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