Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Vote Today On Transit Funding Meausre

I voted

Ballots are due today on the Transit Funding Measure. Ballots can be dropped off at the Magnuson ballot drop box until 8pm.

The City's Transportation District Board is proposing to raise revenue that would be directed toward Metro Transit bus service and County and city transportation projects, including roads, as part of the newly created King County Transportation District. The district is "a separate taxing district that has the authority to generate revenue for transit, roads and other transportation projects," the King County Metro website says. 

The Laurelhurst Community Club (LCC) has not formerly weighed in on this proposition to the City. 

LCC did tell us that:
The biggest concern is that 40% of the funds raised will go into a general fund for transportation improvements in unincorporated areas of the County.   
This means that Seattle voters will finance these improvements with no direct benefit.  And, this is at a time when there is a great need to enhance Metro transit services, rather than just maintain current service levels.
 

The measure, if adopted by voters would:
·           Increase the King County sales tax by 0.1 of a percent for ten years
·           Establish a $60 vehicle fee
·           Distribute 60 percent of the net revenues of the ballot measure to provide funding to maintain Metro transit service hours at current levels. If any funds remain after maintaining transit service hours, evenly split the remaining funds 50/50 between transit and unincorporated road purposes
·           40 percent would go to cities for transportation improvements and the county for unincorporated area road purposes allocated based on population
·           Specify that the funds must be used for transportation improvement projects contained in the County's, Cities' or Puget Sound Regional Council's approved transportation plans (as updated by the individual jurisdictions)
·           Establish a low-income rebate program that rebates $20 of vehicle fee for vehicle owners whose household income is less than 45 percent of the county’s median household income.

For more information go here.
 

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