Bellingham Buys Back Sunday Bus Service

Jared at the Bellingham Herald has an informative article in today's paper about the City of Bellingham and Whatcom Transportation Authority (WTA) finalizing their plan for the city to buy back Sunday bus service.

WTA's .2% transit sales tax measure barely failing countywide last year and the city's successfully passed a .2% tax measure a few months later using transportation benefit district (TBD) authority.  With the city generated funds Bellingham and WTA are entering into a creative agreement that ultimately will preserve Sunday bus service in Bellingham.

While this is not a permanent solution to the transit funding crisis in Washington I do think creative partnerships like this one using city's TBD authority will be an important tool in the toolbox for helping transit survive across our state in the next few years.

The Bus Ad versus no Ad Debate Flares in Whatcom County

The Bellingham Herald Transportation Blog reports that the Whatcom Transportation Authority (WTA) Board rejected a contract that would have increased the agencies' ad revenues from $35,000 to $90,000.  A few years ago a similar debate flared up in King County over the prolific expansion of their bus wrapping program.  While transit agencies only get a small fraction of their budgets from advertising, it seems to me that any thing that can keep buses running on the streets during this funding crisis is a good thing.  I don't know about you, but as a transit rider I'd rather have a bus wrapped in ads than no bus at all.

Bellingham Herald , "Whatcom County voters narrowly rejecting WTA tax increase"

The Bellingham Herald had a preliminary story on last night's WTA returns. The full story is here.

"Obviously it's close, but I'm obviously pleased that the majority of folks are going to defeat this, I think," said Brett Bonner, campaign manager for People for Progressive Transportation, the group opposing the measure. "The later vote, it tends to lean conservative, traditionally. But at this point no one knows for sure."

Jason Heck, spokesman for the group urging passage of the measure, Transit Works, said they'll just have to see what further counts show.

"We looked at the numbers going in and knew that it was going to be pretty close," he said. "I guess we'll just see where it goes from here."

No new numbers have been released yet and its too close to call, but unfortunately it is an uphill climb for the campaign to save bus service in Whatcom County.

Future of Whatcom County Transit Decided Tonight?

Whatcom County voters will decide today whether or not to save their bus service with a .02% sales tax increase. If the measure does not pass Whatcom Transportation Authority will be forced to cut service by around 15%.

I'll report here live with the first returns. If the election is close it may be too close to call tonight. They need a 50%+1 vote to pass the modest sales tax increase to save service.

For election results directly from the source here is the link you will want.
http://www.co.whatcom.wa.us/purl/elections/results/2010/04/27/html/

For great coverage of the campaign (and I'm sure result analysis as well) check out the Traffic Blog on the Bellingham Herald's website.
http://blogs.bellinghamherald.com/traffic/

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that a majority of Whatcom County voters will decide to step up to save their great smaller transit system.

Win or lose, I think the pro-transit campaign did a great job getting the word out about the importance of bus service in the community and rallying a diverse spectrum of organizational and individual supporters.

Stay tuned here as the first round of results arrive in 30 minutes or so.


Update:
Jared from the Bellingham Herald reports that 39% of voters have voted as of yesterday in the special election. I think this is probably a good sign for the measure. Also according to his blog there will be only one release of numbers tonight at 8:30pm. The next one will not be until tomorrow.

RESULTS!
With 41.75% of the registered voters counted the measure is failing by a minuscule amount, 274 votes out of 47,536 counted.

Wow. This is very very tight. With these being the only ballots counted today it is way to close to call. This means ballot chasing and very likely a mandatory recount could be in order, unless things swing strongly one way or another. Wild.

According to the auditor they have 48,355 ballots returned as of today. That means they have about 800 more ballots to count as of today. Another few hundred ballots will come in over the next few days, probably meaning there is about 1,400 or less ballots to count. Very very tight.

Preserve Public Transit In Whatcom County: Vote YES on Proposition 1!

We've been hard at work to pass Proposition 1 in Bellingham, which will save bus service across Whatcom County. Below is an action alert e-mail that is going out today. Please considering donating a small amount of money or time to help save bus service in Whatcom County!

Vote Yes on Prop 1 this April to Preserve Public Transit in Whatcom County!

Bus service in Whatcom County needs your Help!
The Whatcom Transportation Authority (WTA) provides over 20,000 one way trips per weekday to residents throughout Whatcom County. In 2008, WTA had the fastest ridership growth of any transit system in the United States, so demand has been growing. However, while demand has increased, revenues have decreased.

The overwhelming majority of WTA’s revenues comes from locally collected sales taxes. Due to our current economic recession, sales tax revenues have plummeted. WTA has already slashed $2 million out of its existing budget, and the agency will be forced to cut another $4 million dollars in the next year if Proposition 1 does not pass. Cuts will mean evening and Sunday bus service will be eliminated and many Whatcom County residents will be left stranded at their bus stops.

What you can do to Help
1. VOTE YES on Proposition 1 by April 27th! This is an all mail in election so get your ballot in early to make sure your vote is counted
2. DONATE: Even a small Donation to the campaign will help them reach more voters and win in April.
3. VOLUNTEER: The campaign is now running phone banks to contact voters. There are plenty of two hour shifts available from 10am-8pm Monday-Thursday. They are also doorbelling from 10-1 or 12-3 on Saturdays. For more information contact the campaign’s field director at Elisabethbritt@gmail.com . Doorbelling and Phone banking will be staffed out of the Whatcom County Democrats Office at 215 West Holly Street in Bellingham.

What Two Cents Buys you
On April 27th WTA is proposing to raise their sales tax levels by 0.2%, or 2 pennies on a ten dollar purchase. 2 pennies can help save bus service in your community; at a time when demand for transit continues to grow we need more transit service, not less!

Providing efficient bus service across the county gives Whatcom County residents the opportunity to leave their cars at home when going to work, school or simply running errands. Robust transit service is crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting urban growth that protects rural lands. That’s why we hope you’ll join us in voting YES on Proposition 1.

Thank you for your support! For more information visit http://www.preserveourpublictransit.org/ and remember to VOTE YES on PROPOSITION 1 this April!