Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Update on the Governor's Transit funding Veto

I posted yesterday the unfortunate news that the Governor decided to veto the 20$ car tab local funding portion of ESSB 5433.

Here is some updated information.

Make sure you check out the Seattle P-I article on the topic. They added a response from the Governor's office stating that she vetoed it because there already is a car tab transit funding option in the Transportation Public Benefit District legislation that passed in 2005. While this is true, it is nearly impossible to use this mechanism, especially county wide in large urbanized areas, because you have to get 60% of the cities in the district with 75% of the population to agree to the tax. Also this money can go to roads and transit so there is always that fun battle. To date no TPBDs that I know have been enacted to pay for transit. Seattle Transit Blog has a good post her on this taxing mechanism here. 5433 would have allowed local voters to decide directly on a 20$ per year car tab for transit.

Today the the Governor's veto letter on 5433 has been posted on her website here (pdf). This letter also cites the existing TPBD as a reason for the veto.

If you would like to send the Governor an e-mail on her veto click here!

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