With Election Day almost here, a campaign battle over Sound Transit’s Proposition 1 is peaking with thousands of dollars spent on ads.
Opponents are trying to persuade voters that the measure is pretty much the same as a package of road-and-transit projects that voters rejected in November 2007. A group called NoToProp1.org has raised and spent about $153,000 on media ads against the measure, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission. The proposal aims to expand bus, train and light rail projects over the next 15 years in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties.
“This is a deja vu all over again,” said Mark Baerwaldt, the treasurer of the opposition group. “It costs too much, does too little and takes too long.”
This time, things are different, proponents say, as the proposal aims to fund only transit projects. Mass Transit Now, a grass-roots group with several hundred volunteers, has raised about $863,000 to fight for the measure, according to the disclosure commission. The group had spent about $616,000 as of Friday.
It plans to spend more before Tuesday, said Alex Fryer, a group spokesman.
“This measure provides a solution to gridlock, gas prices and global warming,” Fryer said.
Last year, voters rejected a different proposal that combined a series of road-and-transit projects. The proposal’s size and complexity overwhelmed voters, critics said. The defeated proposal would have increased the sales tax and car tab fees in the three counties to finance a 20-year, $17.8 billion package of new roads and light rail expansion.
The new transit measure that appears on the Nov. 4 ballot is expected to cost $17.9 million collected from a new half-cent sales tax hike per dollar spent, or 5 cents on a $10 purchase, according to Sound Transit.
Under the proposal, Snohomish County is expected to see a 30 percent increase in bus service — by adding buses to existing routes — and half of the proposed increase would be in place by 2010, said Bruce Gray, a spokesman for the transit agency. The measure also aims to bring light rail to Lynnwood, a project that could speed up development in its future city center west of I-5.
People would benefit from increased bus service, said Everett City Councilman Paul Roberts, who also sits on the Sound Transit Board of Directors.
“I was a skeptic, and I think this is a right step in a right time,” Roberts said. “This is a very tough time; I’m very sensitive to that.”
The board of directors approved the transit proposal this summer when gas prices stayed high, making people try transit options. Gas prices have fallen below $3 per gallon, as the slow global economy decreased the demand for oil.
Chuck Mirelli of Everett doubts gas prices will remain low for a long time. People need a reliable mass transit system, Mirelli said.
“I can’t believe I can’t hop on light rail in Everett to go to the airport,” he said.
He has yet to decide on Proposition 1, Mirelli added. He’s not big on tax hikes, and the economy doesn’t seem likely to recover soon.
Carl Alu of Everett said he thinks people would benefit from more transportation options. He plans to vote for Proposition 1 regardless of changing gas prices.
“I just think it gets traffic from freeways and makes them more convenient,” Alu said.
Proposition 1 is a wrong proposal in a wrong time, said Baerwaldt, of Seattle. As the financial crisis continues to cripple the national economy, jobs are being lost and people are tightening their belts.
“This is simply a wrong time to raise taxes for working families,” he said, adding that he spent about $18,000 out of his pocket to fight the transit measure.
Under the proposal, most of the money would be spent to build light rail. More money should be used to improve bus service and for van pools, Baerwaldt said.
Light rail “is the wrong technology because of the hills and waters we have here,” he said.
Baerwaldt and Will Knedlik, a former state representative who opposes Proposition 1, said that if approved, the measure would give Sound Transit the ability to collect far more taxes than $17.9 billion. The agency could raise $107 billion over the next 45 years, they said.
Sound Transit officials don’t know where opponents get their numbers, Gray said. The measure’s price tag is $17.9 billion, he added.
Edmonds City Councilwoman Deanna Dawson, a Sound Transit board member, supports the measure, as do two other board members from Snohomish County — Roberts and Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon.
“What this economy needs is infrastructure projects like this that will get our economy back moving and create new jobs,” Dawson said.
Raising taxes won’t help the economy, Baerwaldt said.
“It just kills economic growth,” he said. “It’s an absolutely wrong thing to do in this economy.”
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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