11:20: City council transportation chair Tom Rasmussen says that with the elimination of the downtown Ride-Free Area, the city plans to continue spending the $400,000 it currently invests in the area, perhaps by providing free daytime service on Third Avenue. King County Executive Dow Constantine confirms that eliminating the zone will also mean eliminating the confusing current system in which riders pay as they leave when boarding certain buses, but pay as they enter when boarding others.
11:15: Neither of the two Republican members of the King County Council will say whether the remaining (and absent) two council Republicans, Pete Von Reichbauer and Reagan Dunn, will vote to put the temporary, $20 Metro fee on the ballot—a response I interpret as a “no.” However, both say there is “zero” chance that they will vote against the fee on Monday, August 15.
11:10: Jane Hague, who’s being challenged by two serious opponents for reelection, says she’s willing to stake her election on her support for a two-year, $20 vehicle license fee. “I’m here at the behest of the District 6 voters. If they choose to reelect me, that’s fine. This is a very meaningful issue—real, meaningful reform, real jobs in the economy. Those are huge to me.”
11:07: Bellevue Downtown Association president Leslie Lloyd: “Giving up on 40/40/20″—the system that provided most new service to suburban areas, and the least to Seattle and Shoreline—”was a bitter pill for us to swallow. [But] fewer routes and riders would mean more cars on 520, I-5, and I-405 and more cars idling on the streets of our downtowns. … We can’t afford those consequences if we’re going to remain competitive as a region.”
11:05: King County Council member Larry Phillips, on the deal to pass a $20, two-year fee to preserve Metro bus service: “There is some controversy with regard to raising the congestion reduction charge by $20 in this economy. The tremendous hurt it would do to our economy not having it would be unacceptable. … To my mind, $20 is affordable, and transit cuts are not.”
10:50: Both Republicans at this morning’s Metro press conference announcing that the King County Council will pass a $20 fee to preserve Metro service for two years, Jane Hague and Kathy Lambert, have spoken. Jane Hague: “I believe that it is a great deal for the Eastside. It is a great deal for King County. It cuts waste; it is real, meaningful reform. … I know it’s not without controversy, but I think as the system, the proposed package, plays out, you will all see that it is well worth the hard work.” Kathy Lambert: “We were ready for the ballot, and then things changed.”
The $20 fee requires a supermajority vote of six members of the King County Council. Details of the agreement are below.
10:45: County Executive Dow Constantine has announced a five-part plan to save Metro service.
Part 1: Provide bus tickets, worth up to $20, to everyone who pays the $20, two-year vehicle license fee; those who don’t want the tickets can donate them to social and human-services agencies that provide low-cost bus tickets to low-income and homeless people;
Part 2: Phase out the downtown Ride-Free Area, which costs more than $2 million a year, starting in October 2012;
Part 3: Increase the pool of funds that pay for low-cost bus tickets and either further discount bus tickets or provide more bus tickets to social service agencies;
Part 4: Accelerate the “right-sizing,” in Constantine’s words, of bus service—increasing vanpool and dial-a-ride service in areas where demand for full bus service is lower, and increasing bus service in areas where demand is high;
Part 5: Increase bus service in areas where drivers are hit hardest by tolls, including the SR-520 corridor and on the new deep-bore tunnel.
10:36 am: County executive Constantine announces that the county council has a “supermajority, and then some” to pass the temporary $20 fee to save Metro service for two years.
10:33 am: King County Council members Jane Hague and Kathy Lambert, Republicans who had been holdouts on the $20 fee, just arrived with Constantine. “I am pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement to save Metro Transit,” Constantine just said.
10:20 am: The press (yes, all of them) is at the county-owned Chinook Building in Pioneer Square, waiting for King County Executive Dow Constantine to make his big announcement about the future of Metro transit. Hanging out in the hallway with county staffers: King County Council member Larry Phillips, King County Council member Bob Ferguson, Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce spokesman George Allen, state Sen. Scott White (D-46), King County Labor Council leader Dave Freiboth, Bellevue City Council member John Chelminiak, Seattle City Council member Tom Rasmussen, State Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, King County Council member Larry Gossett, Metro union president Paul Bachtel, Rep. Transportation Choices Coalition field director Andrew Austin, and UW transportation director Josh Kavanagh.
As we reported this morning, the rumor is that county council members have agreed to get rid of the downtown ride-free area in exchange for passing a temporary $20 vehicle license fee to preserve Metro service for two years. More to come.
