When Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson attended a city neighborhood meeting the other day to explain the council’s recent decision to back a referendum to increase the transit tax, he was surprised by the response. The majority of people who spoke were generally supportive of the idea.
Nobody told him the city was crazy to even consider pursuing a sales tax increase right now.
Who knows if that was a sign of how the Sept. 14 vote will turn out? Voters are a fickle group and talk of tax increases are not popular. They could embrace the tax or they could shoot it down. Either way, city leaders have a little more than six weeks to explain the troubled agency’s predicament and what residents would get for 0.6 percent now and in the future. That’s not much time, but residents deserve nothing less.
First, the city must justify the agency’s existence. After years of wrangling with Community Transit over a possible merger many people still don’t understand the history behind the talks or why the current city council and mayor don’t support a merger now. New residents who immerse themselves in local issues take a look at the situation and ask why the two haven’t merged. Voters must know why the city needs its own transit agency and what that means in terms of services provided. And they need to see that these services are not being duplicated.
As with any tax increase proposal, voters want a clear explanation of what their dollars will buy. At a recent press conference Stephanson said the sales tax increase would apply not only toward a restoration of services previously cut, but an improvement of services that would entice people out of their cars. Most of the people who use the city’s bus system are on their way to run errands and take advantage of entertainment opportunities in the community. As the city’s many exciting projects come to fruition, the request for that type of transportation option will likely increase. People will want to get from one part of the waterfront to another. South Everett residents may want to travel north for a parade, a hockey game or a class at one of the downtown colleges. People will want to know how far their 3 cents on a $10 dollar purchase will get them if they hop on an Everett Transit bus.
City council members and other leaders have the answers to these questions and more. What they don’t have is much time to make their case. Absentee ballots will go out soon and voters will be tasked with untangling an issue in a matter of days and weeks that took years to create. It’s up to city officials to make that process a little less daunting.
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