After failing at the ballot box last year, Sound Transit is aiming for a return trip to voters as soon as November with a slimmed-down pitch for mass transit projects.
Up to $10.3 billion in bus, train and light rail projects in the Puget Sound area would be built during 12 years under the proposal.
That’s smaller than the $18 billion in projects proposed to be built over 20 years that failed as part of last year’s Proposition 1 “roads and transit” measure.
Snohomish County leaders already have lined up against the new idea, in part because it would add decades to any hope of light rail service in this county. Under Proposition 1, light rail would have been built to north Lynnwood by 2027.
Instead, regional bus service and new transit hubs in Edmonds and Mukilteo would be paid for under the latest tax plan.
The only strides toward building light rail in Snohomish County would include design work and a pot of money for opportunistic land purchases along a rail route to be mapped later.
That’s practically going back to the drawing board — and not a good enough long-term plan for Snohomish County commuters, said Deanna Dawson, a member of the Edmonds City Council, the Community Transit Board and Sound Transit.
“We think it doesn’t make sense to rush back to the ballot with something that’s not completely cooked,” Dawson said.
At an informational meeting Thursday, Ben Vaughan, a bus rider who lives in Lynnwood, said this is the right year for voters to approve a transit package, adding it just has to be sold right. He was one of about 20 people at the meeting in Lynnwood.
“Whatever gets me my rail system soonest,” he said. “I don’t want to be 50 riding that train.”
The Sound Transit Board is scheduled to decide in July whether and when to go to voters.
Conceptually, taxpayers would shell out either 4 cents or 5 cents on a $10 purchase to pay for the improvements. The taxes would be collected in the Sound Transit district, which includes the cities and urban parts of Snohomish County.
Including inflation, the money would pay for $9 billion in projects at the lower tax rate and $10.3 billion in projects at the higher rate.
The money also would raise about $1 billion for 12 years of operations and maintenance.
Snohomish County would receive about one-eighth of the money.
For King County, the plan raises enough money to add light rail to the system already under construction.
Not so in Snohomish County, hence the opposition.
“We can’t raise sufficient revenues to get light rail in 12 years,” Dawson said.
“Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood have expressed strongly that they feel any solution that doesn’t bring light rail to Snohomish County is not feasible and probably dead on arrival if we go out (to the ballot) in 2008,” Dawson said.
Officials said they would rather wait until 2010 and have a better proposal that would raise enough money for light rail work here.
Dawson criticized Sound Transit’s plan for Bus Rapid Transit in Snohomish County, saying that putting more buses on clogged carpool lanes on I-5 doesn’t help commuters.
The Sound Transit board hasn’t completely ruled out asking voters to reconsider the larger 20-year tax plan proposed last year, which would have built $18 billion in projects, including inflation.
Research and feedback after the failed ballot measure showed people felt the measure was too big, “and didn’t like voting on roads and transit as a single combined measure,” Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick said.
Nobody is rushing back to the ballot with a measure to raise taxes to build more roads. Snohomish, King and Pierce counties had the option of forming countywide taxing districts by Thursday, but declined.
Instead, cities now can team up and ask voters for higher car tabs, but so far there’s only polite interest without any hurry, Snohomish County Public Works director Steve Thomsen said.
High gas prices and increased transit service are drawing more commuters to buses and trains.
“We need to realize $4- to $5-a-gallon gas may be here to stay,” said Everett City Councilman Paul Roberts, a Sound Transit Board member. “The reality is, between fuel shortages, peak fuel and greenhouse gases, we have to rethink how we move people, how we get too and from work.”
What’s on the table for public review doesn’t show a complete Sound Transit regional plan and doesn’t tell the public how much it costs, Roberts said.
A better plan would have better cost estimates and better plans for coordinating Snohomish County transit agencies.
He said he voted against releasing this latest proposal for public review, let alone to the ballot.
“We need to go to the ballot with a whole system,” Roberts said. “We cannot afford another failure at the ballot.”
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
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