EVERETT – City officials are discussing whether to ask voters to approve a sales tax increase for financially strapped Everett Transit.
The agency cut service 14 percent last year, and the City Council last week reviewed a public-transit plan that forecasts further reductions in 2005.
“Within the next couple of years, we’re going to need to do something with regard to our sales tax,” Mayor Ray Stephanson said Friday. “Our other option is to cut services further, and I don’t think that’s a good option.”
Retail customers in Everett now pay an 8.3 percent sales tax, or 8.3 cents for every dollar spent. Everett Transit’s share from that 8.3 cents has been about .3 cents since 1975. This year, about half the agency’s budget will come from sales tax revenue, which has been steady for the past few years.
Community Transit’s sales tax rate is 0.9 percent, so many retail customers in CT’s service area pay an 8.9 percent sales tax. Everett residents don’t pay CT’s tax.
The City Council must approve any tax-increase proposal. Councilman Bob Overstreet said he hasn’t decided whether to support a tax hike. But he said the council must begin talking about one soon.
“We need to have a very open, aggressive look at what we expect our public transportation to do,” he said. “And we need to have an open, protracted dialogue with our citizens.”
Stephanson predicted that demand for public transit will grow in coming years if, as the city hopes, thousands of people move into new apartment buildings and condominiums in and near downtown.
Auto dealerships are worried that a tax increase would send more customers to Skagit County, which has sales tax rates between 7.7 percent and 7.9 percent.
Buzz Roland, owner and president of Roland Toyota in Everett, suggested the city delay a tax increase until car sales rebound from the slump they’ve been in since Sept. 11, 2001.
Roland and several other business owners attended a meeting last month at which city officials discussed ET’s financial challenges. “We have a lot of empathy for their situation,” he said.
Casey Salz, one of the owners of Brien Ford in Everett, is skeptical that better bus service would attract more riders. “Most people who have cars will continue to use their cars,” he said.
Stephanson said he understands auto dealers’ concerns. “We need to be as conservative as possible and not ask for more than what we absolutely need,” the mayor said.
The city is looking at ways to trim ET’s expenses by, for example, collaborating more with Community Transit on services for disabled riders, he said.
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