On July 22 the Transit Riders Union and allies presented the King Council Council with a petition of over 1,000 signatures in support of a low income reduced. TRU members and allies, including representatives of Puget Sounds Advocates for Retirement Action (PSARA), UFCW 21, and Seattle Housing and Resource Effort (SHARE), testified to the importance of affordable public transit.
In September the council also got a briefing from the Low Income Fare Options Advisory Committee, which they created at the beginning of 2013. The first recommendation of this committee was that a low income fare program should be created! You can download the full recommendations and report of the advisory committee online here.
The Council Members are supportive in principle, but as usual the hurdle is funding. A good low income fare program is likely to cost at least $12 million per year. So the critics ask: where is this funding going to come from, when Metro can’t even keep the buses running?
A low income fare shouldn’t mean more service cuts – this program needs its own dedicated funding source, and the money is out there. For example, the county already has the power to pass an Employer Tax that could fully fund a great low income fare program. In politics, where there’s a will there’s a way. Now we need to keep the pressure on!
