On July 17 the Seattle City Council, acting as the Seattle Transportation Benefit District Governing Board, voted unanimously to place a measure on the November ballot that would preserve most bus service in the city of Seattle and on some intercity routes by means of a 0.1% sales tax increase and a $60 vehicle license fee.

The Transit Riders Union urges a YES vote on Seattle’s ballot measure to save transit. Thousands of Seattle and King County residents depend on Metro buses every day, and we cannot afford to lose our service.

At the same time, this is not a solution. The proposed measure pushes the burden of funding public transit further onto working and poor people, leaves transit riders in the lurch throughout the rest of King County, and contributes to the fragmentation of what should be a unified regional mass transit system.

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This month the Seattle City Council, acting as a Transportation Benefit District, will be voting on a proposal to prevent cuts to Seattle’s Metro service. Mayor Murray has proposed “Prop 1 for Seattle” – but whereas the county had no better options, Seattle does. Councilmembers Sawant and Licata are putting forward an amendment to make the Mayor’s proposal more progressive.  The vote may take place as early as this Thursday.

Please come to City Hall council chambers this Thursday to show support for transit and speak out for this amendment – and if you can’t make it, please email the councilmembers.

2:00 PM, Thursday, July 10
Transportation Benefit District Meeting
Seattle City Hall, Council Chambers
600 4th Avenue

Please email and call your elected representatives and urge them to support Sawant and Licata’s proposal to remove the sales tax increase and replace it with a tax on businesses.

Tom Rasmussen               tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov     206-684-8808

Sally Bagshaw                    sally.bagshaw@seattle.gov         206-684-8801

Tim Burgess                        tim.burgess@seattle.gov             206-684-8806

Sally Clark                            sally.clark@seattle.gov                  206-684-8802

Jean Godden                     jean.godden@seattle.gov           206-684-8807

Bruce Harrell                      bruce.harrell@seattle.gov           206-684-8804

Mike O’Brien                     mike.obrien@seattle.gov            206-684-8800

Why Progressive Funding?

Why replace the 0.1% sales tax with an Employee Hours Tax on business and a Commercial Parking Fee increase?

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Mobility is a human right.  Public transit is basic infrastructure.  Let’s rally to send a message to all our elected leaders that we can’t wait any longer for a fully-funded public mass transit system, affordable and accessible to all! Facebook Event Page.

Fund Metro Now!
Transit Riders Union Rally & Press Conference
Thursday, June 26:  4:00 – 5:00 PM
600 4th Avenue, outside Seattle City Hall

Following this rally there will be a Public Hearing at City Hall of the Seattle Transportation Benefit District, concerning a possible November 2014 ballot measure to raise funding to save Seattle’s bus service.  TRU and allies will be there to testify in support of city action & specifically to support the amendment to the Mayor’s proposal put forward by Councilmembers Sawant and Licata.  Come testify in support of progressive transit funding!

Public Hearing
Seattle Transportation Benefit District
Thursday, June 26: 5:30 – 8:00 PM
City Hall, Council Chambers
600 4th Avenue, Seattle

The Transit Riders Union has a new mailing address:

Transit Riders Union
P.O. Box 20723
Seattle, WA 98102

With the failure of Proposition 1 on April 22, the future of our public transit system hangs in the balance. In September King County Metro will implement the first of four planned rounds of bus service cuts. If all of these cuts happen, 16% of our bus service, or 550,000 annual service hours, will simply disappear.

We all know that these cuts are unacceptable. They are unacceptable from an economic point of view, they are unacceptable from an environmental point of view, and most of all they are unacceptable from a human point of view. To gut our public transit system when buses are already overcrowded, when the polar ice sheets are melting, and when tens of thousands of King County residents have no other way to get around, is nothing short of insane.

The City of Seattle and other cities in King County now have a duty to act to save as much bus service as possible. Mayor Murray has proposed a sales tax increase of 0.1% and car tab fees of $60 to be put on the ballot in November: Prop 1 replayed in Seattle only. While this is preferable to service cuts, we believe the city should consider more progressive options first. We strongly support the amendment put forward by Councilmembers Kshama Sawant and Nick Licata, to replace the sales tax increase with a Commercial Parking Tax increase and an Employer Head Tax.

But in the end, we cannot forget that all these local options are last-ditch emergency measures, and we cannot let arguments over which is the least bad distract us from the real question: Why are we even talking about cutting public transit? Public transit is basic infrastructure, and we should not be forced to vote to preserve it. Affordable mass transit is an environmental, economic, and social necessity, and it needs to be treated as such by those who represent us in government.

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We just learned that signature-gathering for Initiative 118 has been suspended, and the Mayor is expected to announce a ballot measure to save Metro service this Tuesday, May 13.  Thank you to everyone who has been out collecting signatures.  You can read more here: https://www.keepseattlemoving.com/

Prop 1 went down hard, despite the heroic efforts of TRU members and volunteers and many other organizations and individuals.  But we’re not giving up the fight!  At our May Membership Meeting, TRU voted to endorse Initiative 118, which would at least save much of Seattle’s bus service by raising property taxes by $0.22 per $1,000 of assessed value.  And while TRU members and volunteers will be on the front lines of this effort, we’ll also be working to plan our strategy for the November elections and next session in Olympia.

We have only until June 4 to gather over 20,000 valid signatures.  Want to volunteer with us?  Email contact@transitriders.org or leave a message at 206-651-4282.  You can also stop by the Labor Temple, Hall 6 on Monday, May 12 between 6 and 8 pm to pick up petition sheets and other materials.  You can also print petition sheets here.  It is important that TRU can keep in contact with the riders we talk to, so please also print these TRU contact sheets and encourage petition signers to sign up for our email or phone lists.