County Council approves car-tab fee to fund Metro
Metro buses pass the King County Courthouse building on Third Avenue in downtown Seattle.
By Tyler Roush
The Voice editor
Metro Transit will not see deeper service cuts, thanks to a car-tab fee approved last month by the King County Council.
The council voted Aug. 15 to approve a two-year, $20 car-tab fee “councilmatically,” meaning the ordinance does not require voter approval. Council support ensures that funding for King County Metro will remain stable, at least for now.
The car-tab fee will raise a projected $50 million to fund Metro, closing a substantial budget shortfall and staving off deeper service cuts — estimates put the cuts at 17 percent of Metro service. The $20 fee will expire after two years.
Agreement came just weeks after the car-tab fee appeared headed to the ballot in November. Shortly before an Aug. 15 deadline to act on the ordinance, Republican Councilmembers Jane Hague and Kathy Lambert reversed their positions on the car-tab fee, and said they would join the five Democrats on the council in approving it. The seven votes on the nine-member council were enough to ensure automatic passage of the fee.
The deal was contingent upon a series of reforms to Metro, most notably the elimination of the Ride-Free Area in Downtown Seattle, a popular program that nonetheless cost Metro a net of $1.8 million annually to operate. (The City of Seattle paid Metro $400,000 annually to offset the total cost of $2.2 million.)
The agreement will also create a transit incentive program that will provide eight bus vouchers with each car tab renewal during the duration of the fee program. Metro will also increase the pool of discounted bus tickets allotted to local social service agencies, which in turn pass the tickets on to clients.
In a statement, King County Executive Dow Constantine thanked the councilmembers who supported the ordinance.
“Though statesmanship may be on its deathbed in Congress, tonight’s vote shows that it is alive and well here at home in King County,” Constantine said. “This is a victory for our regional economy and a victory for those who turned out overwhelmingly to call upon us to save Metro Transit. The people of King County spoke, and we heard them loud and clear.”
Support for automatic passage of the car-tab fee was overwhelming, with an estimated 1,500 county residents turning out to offer comment at four public hearings on the issue. Nearly all of those who offered comment voiced their support of the ordinance.
News of the deal was first reported Friday, Aug. 12, with an announcement by King County Executive Dow Constantine that an agreement had been reached on reforms to King County Metro.
Councilmembers Hague and Lambert had said they would join fellow councilmembers Bob Ferguson, Larry Gossett, Joe McDermott, Julia Patterson and Larry Phillips in supporting the car-tab fee.
The Monday, Aug. 15 vote made it official, and the $20 fee received councilmatic approval by a margin of 7-2. Councilmembers Reagan Dunn and Pete von Reichbauer opposed the ordinance.
Seattle car-tab fee to appear on November ballot
Although the $20 King County Metro car-tab fee will not appear on the November ballot, Seattle voters will be asked to weigh in on a city car-tab proposed by Mayor Mike McGinn.
The $60 annual fee would help fund road and transit projects, and would raise about $200 million a year. Of that, 49 percent would go to transit projects, 29 percent to roads and 22 percent to bike and pedestrian projects.
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