City council members—who have spent more time lobbying legislators in Olympia this session than in any previous year—say the senate transportation committee, headed by frequent transit foe Mary Margaret Haugen (D-10), seems unlikely to authorize counties to pass a $30 emergency license fee for transit unless it includes a public vote. (Last month, state Rep. Mike Armstrong, R-12, signed on to the house version of the bill, but only on the condition that it go to a public vote; the bill ultimately passed without Armstrong’s support).
The temporary (two-year) fee is aimed at staving off devastating cuts at King, Pierce, and Snohomish County transit agencies; without it, King County Metro alone faces service cuts of 600,000 hours, or 17 percent. As written, the legislation allows counties to simply impose the fee (again, on a temporary, two-year basis). If the counties had to put the fee to a vote, it could be a year or more before it takes effect—far too late to do anything about the impending service cuts.
“It’s only a two-year fee,” says council transportation chair Tom Rasmussen, who pleaded his case last week to a skeptical Haugen. “It isn’t going to help us during the short term if we have to take it to voters.”
