Sound Transit's light rail plan takes strong lead

A regional transit proposal that would extend light rail service from downtown Seattle into the surrounding suburbs was headed for passage behind solid support in King County.

Proposition 1 would impose a sales tax increase of .5 percent, a nickel per $10, to pay for a plan Sound Transit estimates at $22.8 billion. It would expand light rail to Bellevue, Lynnwood and Federal Way.

As of early Wednesday, the measure was drawing 58.6 percent support in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, including 61.9 percent in King County. The weakest support was 51 percent in Pierce County, where counting was delayed by a ranked choice voting system for local offices.

Sound Transit's taxing jurisdiction in the three counties covers roughly half of Washington state's population. The proposition would add 34 new miles of light rail and expand commuter train and bus service.

A scrappy assortment of opponents from across the political spectrum, organized as NoToProp1.org, contended that taxpayers could wind up on the hook for more than $107 billion over 45 years, although a King County Superior Court judge rejected that estimate as unrealistic in a dispute over the ballot language.

Polls taken earlier this year indicated more than 60 percent support for the proposal. But last year, voters soundly rejected a more sweeping plan that also included road improvements and new park-and-ride lots. That measure also led in pre-election polls.

"There's a sense of the new reality ... that the age when we can get around exclusively by car is over, and we need to catch up," Mike O'Brien of the Sierra Club told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The environmental group opposed the more ambitious plan in 2007, saying it relied too much on highways, but supported Proposition 1 this year.