By mid-2014 — when two temporary funding sources expire — King County Metro will be facing a shortfall of $75 million per year. Metro chief Kevin Desmond said this morning that, without replacement funding, this could mean the termination of up to 30 percent of Metro routes. Continue reading 30% of King County Metro Routes May Disappear in “Bus Rapture”
While I was trying to make sense of this dishearteningly stupid story, Seattle Public Schools made a new announcement: “New proposal calls for return to current 2011-12 transportation plan and minimal impact to current bell times.”
Seattle Schools Community Forum, which has been watchdogging the district on this, calls the statement a “remarkable piece of dis-information.” It’s hard to argue with their concerns about how transportation logistics became a last-minute fire drill. Continue reading Seattle Public Schools to Parents: Psych! Now You Give Us $1 Billion?
It’s an unsettling sign of the times that the King County Council needed to think as hard as it did about approving a $20, two-year, car-licensing fee to forestall a 17 percent cut in Metro bus service. As mentioned earlier, that’s a nickel a day to keep bus service going that carries over 340,000 people every day. People who can’t afford that have other, more significant financial problems that have little to do with Metro funding and car tabs. Continue reading King County Council to Okay $20 Congestion Reduction Charge