King County Executive Dow Constantine today announced a supermajority of County Council support needed to enact a two-year $20 “congestion reduction charge” and avert a 17-percent cut of Metro bus service starting in 2012.
Constantine and council members said they had secured votes from a supermajority of the council to enact the fees without seeking voter approval in an election.
The council is set to consider amendments to the proposed car-tab fee charge at its Monday meeting.
Nearly 1,500 county residents turned out to four public hearings in July to call for the council’s action.
“The people of King County voted with their feet, and they overwhelmingly turned out to tell us to save Metro Transit and keep bus service on the street. They have been heard,” Constantine said. “This agreement creates value for drivers who pay the fee, and provides an incentive for them to give the bus a try. I want to thank these seven ccouncil members for stepping up. This is a collaborative approach that shows how government is supposed to work.”
The council on Monday will consider a bus-ticket incentive program, right-sizing of transit service, and phase out of the downtown Seattle Ride Free Area.
Under the proposed legislation, King County Metro Transit would:
• Develop a Transit Incentive Program to provide eight bus tickets worth up to $24 for each car tab renewal. People can use the tickets for rides to work, play or special sporting events. They may also choose to donate the value of those tickets to a pool of nearly 150 human service agencies to provide mobility for those in need.
• Phase out the downtown Seattle Ride Free Area in October 2012. The council’s 2009 performance audit called for Metro to update its formula for collecting revenues in the Ride Free Area (RFA). When first established in 1973 as the “Magic Carpet Zone,” a city subsidy funded 100 percent of the fares Metro no longer collected in that area. Today the city of Seattle pays Metro $400,000 a year to support the RFA, which is about 18 percent of the $2.2 million annual cost for Metro to operate the RFA.
• Increase the pool of funds that provides sharply discounted bus tickets to human service and homeless programs. Metro now discounts tickets worth nearly $2 million annually. The tickets are currently sold to human service agencies at 20 cents on the dollar. Metro will either increase the current ticket allocation, or further increase the discount while giving the public the option of donating their tickets under the incentive plan to those in need. Metro will seek the advice of human service agencies in how to best help those in need.
• Implement right-sizing of service consistent with the Transit Strategic Plan. In communities where it makes sense, Metro will deploy lower-cost, more efficient Dial-a-Ride Transit service (DART), community access transportation services, Vanpools and vanshares, making service more efficient and responsive to our riders.
• Consider routes that carry more riders due to the effects of highway tolling as candidates for added services. This language in the proposed legislation is consistent with the principles to enhance Metro’s productivity developed by the Regional Transit Task Force and adopted in the County’s Transit Strategic Plan.
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Learn more about how Metro can have a sustainable future at: www.kingcounty.gov/metro/future
