A fare increase in 2011 and setting new priorities for property tax revenues will allow Metro to maintain existing levels of bus service next year despite the recession, following action Monday by the King County Council.
The council’s action Monday, along with proposals in the county’s 2010 budget set for adoption next week, will allow Metro to avoid cutting 310,000 hours of bus service over two years.
For Renton, the action means that a Rapid-Ride bus rapid transit line will connect Burien and Renton. Whether Renton would get the sixth rapid transit line has been in doubt.
The bus line will include connections in Tukwila to Link light rail and Sounder commuter rail in the next few years.
Originally, the voter-approved Transit Now initiative only gave bus rapid transit to five busy transportation corridors. The money for those five lines is now assured, too.
Combined with a reprioritization of one cent per $1,000 collected under the property tax levy for the county’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System, the package generates $85 million for transit over the next four years, enough to preserve 110,000 hours of bus service annually.
Another 200,000 hours of annual bus service will be preserved when the council adopts the 2010 county budget next week.
Because of the recession and more reliance on public transportation, “the council knows that now is not the time to cut bus service,” said County Council member Julia Patterson, whose district includes Renton.
Under new authority granted by the state Legislature to support public transit, the County Council Monday approved a tax-neutral property tax levy of 6.5 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation to fund transit service. The council also approved a proposal from Metro Transit for a 25-cent fare increase to be implemented in January 2011 for all riders except youth passengers.
Property owners will see no net change in their property tax because the Board of the King County Ferry District voted to reduce the Ferry District’s assessment to approximately one-third of a cent per $1,000 of assessed valuation, down from the original rate of 5.5 cents per $1,000 set in 2007.
The lower levy rate, combined with the use of reserve funds, is sufficient to continue funding of King County Water Taxi service for the two existing routes serving West Seattle and Vashon Island from downtown Seattle, according to county officials.
According to a county press release, the county budget proposal calls for implementation of cost-saving efficiencies first identified in September in the Council-directed Transit Performance Audit, including:
• More efficient scheduling of buses and operators, in part by reducing the amount of time buses lay over at the end of each trip.
• Scheduling bus routes based on the system as a whole, rather than the current practice of scheduling routes within one of Metro’s seven regional transit bases, which will help reduce the “deadheading” that occurs when buses return empty to their home bus base at the end of each operator’s shift.
• Increased training and use of Metro’s scheduling software to identify more opportunities where one bus and operator could more efficiently handle routes.
• Use of $40 million over the next two years from Metro’s Fleet Replacement Fund, which the Council audit revealed holds excess reserves of $105 million.
• Deferral of proposed capital projects, and adjustment of the cleaning schedules for buses and the maintenance schedules for transit shelters and Park and Rides.
• Cutting 43 positions that are not related to bus service, 39 of which are unfilled.
• Authorization for Metro to sell advertising “bus wraps” that include a 15-inch wide strip along the windows, so that riders can retain an unobstructed view out of the bus.
Voters approved the “Transit Now’ initiative in 2006 to expand transit service in King County by up to 20 percent over 10 years to keep pace with regional growth and demand. RapidRide is Metro’s new, streamlined bus service that will provide frequent, all-day service.
