King County Council should enact $20 vehicle fee now to save Metro bus service

THE King County Council has the power to keep the economy from sliding backward, keep commuters moving to their jobs and keep traffic congestion in check by preserving Metro bus service from drastic cuts.

The need is clear. Every day, close to one out of every 10 people in King County takes the bus. More than half of those trips are to work or school — including 40 percent of all work trips to downtown Seattle — and 1,400 businesses buy passes for their employees.

A sharp recession-driven decline in the sales-tax revenues that support Metro Transit means a $60 million annual shortfall. Without new funding, the public would lose 9 million passenger trips per year.

Four out of five Metro riders will have to walk farther, wait longer, make an extra transfer, stand in the aisle, or stand on the curb and see fully loaded buses pass them by. Meanwhile, around 15,000 cars will be put back on the streets every day.

Given these significant impacts, King County's was the only bus system to be granted help by the state Legislature this year — with authority to enact a temporary, two-year, $20 vehicle fee, dubbed by lawmakers a Congestion Reduction Charge.

We applaud the four members of the County Council who have pledged support for this fee: Larry Phillips, Bob Ferguson, Larry Gossett and Joe McDermott. Other regional leaders including the Kirkland City Council and 18 members of the Regional Transit Task Force have also shown their support.

Now we need other County Council members to join these leaders.

Good efforts have minimized the amount needed to keep our bus system working. The council already launched the audit that led to Metro cutting staff by 100 positions, raising fares for riders by 80 percent over the past four years, and canceling bus purchases and postponing service expansion. Metro drivers agreed to a new contract that saves $17 million in costs every year. In all, the savings and efficiencies have totaled $400 million over the past several years.

As far as pushing this to a public vote, the two-year Band-Aid for Metro is a short-term, critical bridge to 2013, not a long-term commitment. An election now will waste up to $1 million in transit dollars that more profitably fund bus service.

We need to focus our election resources and energy on the next two years, when the governor's Connect Washington task force is expected to recommend a comprehensive statewide transportation package to put before voters to fix our crumbling roads and reduce the reliance of transit agencies across the state on the unreliable sales tax.

We urge the remaining members of the King County Council to exercise their role as leaders and act now to keep our transit system moving. We do not want to experience the impacts that pushing people off buses and into their cars will have on all commuters.

We want riders to be able to get to their jobs or to school affordably.

We want low-income people who already spend a large part of their income on transportation to conserve their remaining resources for other critical family needs.

We do not need a major blow to our transportation system that could delay or derail our much-needed economic recovery.

Once County Council members look at the facts, we believe they will understand that they can best serve their constituents by exercising their authority to enact the temporary fee and preserve essential services for the public.

Maud Daudon is chair of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and president & CEO of Seattle-Northwest Securities Corporation. Scott Armstrong is president and CEO of Group Health Cooperative. Greg Johnson is chair of the Bellevue Downtown Association and president of Wright Runstad & Company.