Other amendments would allow the city to divert funding from additional King County Metro bus service to transit security and introduce new levels of micromanagement to the transit funding measure.

By Erica C. Barnett

City Councilmembers Rob Saka and Bob Kettle want to heavily amend Mayor Katie Wilson’s proposed renewal of the Seattle Transit Measure—a sales tax that funds extra Metro transit service in Seattle—by cutting it to a level that would require cuts to existing service and lowering the term of the tax from 10 years to a baffling 6.75.

Kettle’s proposal would be the most dramatic change: He wants to reduce the proposed sales tax from 0.3 percent to 0.2 percent—an amount that would result in cuts to service compared to the levels the tax previously funded. Currently, the tax is 0.15 percent, which was enough to preserve existing bus service back in 2020. Because the cost to provide service has increased over the last six years, a 0.2 percent tax would require cuts to service, while a 0.3 percent tax would increase bus service by about 140,000 hours a year.

Or, rather, it could increase service by that much. Because in addition to Kettle’s proposal to cut the tax, Saka and other council members are offering amendments that would carve out part of the money for pet priorities, including many that are not the city’s responsibility or part of the original intent of the service enhancement levy.

Saka came into the amendment process having already won a bizarrely picayune battle that threatened to upend the legislation before it was introduced. During discussions with the mayor’s office, Saka, who heads up the Seattle Transportation Benefit District committee, told the mayor’s office he wouldn’t take up the legislation in his committee unless he got a $5 million annual earmark (up from the $3.5 million in the mayor’s original plan) for capital improvements that enhance bus service, like curb cuts.

Saka later boasted from the council dais that Wilson had agreed to this concession. But that didn’t stop him from proposing five new amendments, including one that could divert transit funding into more King County sheriff’s deputies and private security officers on Metro’s buses, which centrist Seattle leaders continue to insist are unsafe. His amendment would add transit security to the list of items the transit measure can fund, without any specific limits on how much could be diverted from service hours to security.

Many other proposed council amendments are attempts to micromanage Metro—which is, again, run by a completely separate and independent government—by dictating specific details of its service or requesting reports on council members’ pet priorities.

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For example, one Saka amendment would require King County to report on fare compliance, fare recovery ratios, the extent to which service was delivered “consistently and predictably,” and “On-time performance across service hours and routes served.”

The city does not have the authority to require King County Metro to produce reports—because, again, the county is completely separate from the city. But Saka’s amendment would attempt to force Metro’s hand by making the transit measure subject to annual approval, based on these reports, by the city council—a novel overreach designed to hold funding for the county’s bus system hostage to the Seattle City Council’s will.

Saka is also behind the amendment that would change the length of the tax measure from 10 years to 6 years and 9 months, with an expiration date of December 31, 2033. No other current city tax has a term that includes a partial year.

Other amendments—from Kettle and Maritza Rivera—would request reports from the Seattle Department of Transportation, “in partnership with King County Metro,” on “opportunities to expand” the use of shuttle buses rather than real buses during off-peak hours (Kettle); the feasibility of increasing the space between bus stops (Kettle again), the “performance outcomes” and feasibility of expanding service on two northeast Seattle bus routes, the 62 and 65 (Rivera), and more.

While Metro already compiles lots of information on ridership, reliability, and bus stop efficiency already, this level of micro-reporting has never been part of the Seattle transit measure.

The transit benefit district committee will meet to discuss the proposed amendments on Monday, July 6 at 11am.