Potential Sales Tax Increase for Pierce Transit
An increase in Pierce County sales taxes could be on the horizon. The Pierce Transit Board is considering asking voters to approve an increase in the sales tax of up to 0.3% to restore services cut in recent years.
A special Pierce Transit Board public hearing will be held next Monday, June 4 on the level of proposed increase that would restore services to “restore access to essential services for seniors, the disabled, and people who rely on Pierce Transit.” The final decision will be made at the Transit Board’s June 11 meeting. Full press release below.
If you have an opinion, now is your time to be heard.
REMINDER: Pierce Transit Special Public Hearing on June 4
Lakewood, WA – The Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners will be holding a special public hearing on June 4, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. to take comments on a ballot resolution to utilize Pierce Transit’s remaining taxing authority. The meeting will be held in the Rainier Room of the Pierce Transit Training Center located at 3720 96th Street SW, Lakewood, WA 98499.
On Friday May 11, the Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners met for a work session to discuss the financial impacts of 10 months of continuing declines in sales tax revenue and the removal of jurisdictions from the Pierce Transit boundary.
The Board carefully reviewed agency financial projections and scenarios that ranged from staying at the current 0.6% sales tax authority to putting forward a ballot measure that could utilize the 0.1%, 0.2%, or 0.3% capacity that remains. They also discussed timing options for potential ballot and the merits of including a sunset clause.
The Board came to consensus that securing funding to restore access to essential services for seniors, the disabled, and people who rely on Pierce Transit requires a November 2012 ballot measure asking for 0.3% (three cents on a $10 purchase).
The final decision regarding the level of sales taxing authority to submit to voters will be made at the regular Board meeting on June 11, 2012. If you cannot attend the special public hearing on June 4, public comment will also be taken at the June 11 meeting.
Pierce Transit has made significant cuts in service since 2008 to mitigate the impacts of the recession. Nearly $111 million dollars has been cut or saved including 43% cut in bus service, elimination of special events service, sale of land and assets, and a 19% cut in staffing- including 31% in management. Pierce Transit moved to a high ridership and efficiency service plan in 2011 during the most recent cut to service to focus on moving the most people with the limited resources available.
Filed under: Transportation, Legislation, Pierce County, Transit
24 comments
C Curtis May 31, 2012
Our sales tax went up from 9.3 to 9.4 two months ago in April. Next month it goes up to 9.5 – the same as Seattle. I would like to say I’d be shocked to see a third increase in less than a year but franky, I’m not.
R Rollie May 31, 2012
We already see ads from car dealers outside this area saying come to wherever, out sales tax is lower therefore you car will be less expensive. Another increase will only fuel the business exodus from Tacoma.
T tacoma_1 May 31, 2012
With the most recent PT cutbacks, I can’t take a bus from DT T-Town to my neighborhood after 6:00pm. Saturday service is only one way and Sunday service is cancelled.
As a result, I drive twice as much as I used to, and completely stopped shopping and eating at downtown restaurants. Without frequent transit service, Tacoma is a less livable city.
As a community, we can’t afford to not fund transit. We will lose too many of our young people to our transit rich neighbor to our north if we require a car to live in Tacoma.
A sales tax is needed to restore bus service to a reasonable level. If this comes on the ballot, I will be voting yes. I urge all that care about Tacoma, the elderly, the disabled, and those who can’t afford a car to do the same.
S Swader May 31, 2012
3 tenths of 1 percent. 3 pennies for every $10 you spend? .30 on every $100? $3 on $1,000? $30 on $10,000?
Is this really such an imposition?
C Chris May 31, 2012
I can point to all sorts of statistics that say that young, educated people want access to transit and walkable neighborhoods. Tacoma is going to continue to lose young people to King County if it doesn’t get its act together and commit to more and better transit and walkable, mixed use neighborhoods.
As for the sales tax, the state has tied our hands – it’s either the sales tax or nothing. Either we increase the sales tax or we will have to cut back even more – back to 1980 levels of service. Pierce Transit has already had to cut service 43% since 2007. With the new taxing boundary we are ready to go to the ballot for this and win.
The regressive question is in my understanding, moot. Take it in perspective – is it more or less regressive to tax more and provide public services that reduce dependence on private automobiles or deepen auto dependency by cutting public transit more? Last time I checked, it costs upwards of $8,000 a year in gas, insurance, maintenance, and car payments to maintain a vehicle. Higher transportation costs mean less money for everything else. What young, working class family can sustain two cars and send kids to college?
For me, the choice is totally and completely obvious. For young people, for seniors, for commuters, a 0.3% sales tax is a small price to pay to bringing the urban core of Pierce County to service levels that are on-par with that of King County.
E Erik B. May 31, 2012
With all of the recent tax increases being implemented, analyzing the meta picture and the potential overall effect on Tacoma needs to be done first before weighing in for against the measure IMO.
There may be some negative consequences to Tacoma should it be forced to impose the highest most regressive tax rate in Washington.
There is still a chance that Seattle, or a King County city may place a sales tax measure on the ballot so that Tacoma does not, perhaps in the first time in history, have the highest sales tax rate of any city in the State of Washington.
We will see. Perhaps Seattle will try to place some sort of Latte tax measure on the ballot again.
F fredo May 31, 2012
We could restore some bus service without increasing the sales tax simply by removing the union from representing transit operators. Bus driver wages should be about $35K per year, not $60K per year. This overpayment to government workers who are doing what amounts to pretty routine/common jobs is an unconsionable assault on common sense.
M Mofo from the Hood May 31, 2012
I’ve attempted to rely on Pierce Transit for travelling to work (from Tacoma to Puyallup; and from North Tacoma to South Tacoma); and for general errands. I would challenge anyone to conduct their lives according to Pierce Transit’s ever-changing time tables—Go ahead, throw away hours of your life and hard-earned money. Enjoy the ride and foul atmosphere with some of the most crude people this side of jail bars.
It may be that young, educated people want access to transit and walkable neighborhoods (Chris @6). However, buses don’t make neighborhoods walkable. And I doubt that an educated person of any age would prefer riding a bus filled with capricious strangers over the security and safety and reliability of a private car.
Thanks for the financial projections and skewed statistics. Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that is counted really counts.
T tacoma_1 May 31, 2012
So much hate, and so little facts.
M Mofo from the Hood May 31, 2012
“So much hate, and so little facts.”—tacoma_1@11
Is that true?
F fredo May 31, 2012
You want the facts…you can’t handle the facts
Here are some figures for comparison. These figures illustrate the ratio of transit fares to operating costs. The lower the ratio, the higher the government subsidy.
Amtrak 71%
Berlin 70%
Copenhagan 52%
London 50%
Vienna 50%
Madrid 41%
Paris 40%
Chicago 55%
Boston 44%
Sound Transit 22%
Detroit 14%
Pierce Transit 13%
This new tax increase will lower the ratio even further. We are already way over-subsidizing this enterprise and it’s time to say no.
T tacoma_1 May 31, 2012
Cite your source please.
F fredo May 31, 2012
Sorry, the source is Wikipedia/farebox recovery ratio.
T tacoma_1 May 31, 2012
Wikipedia is not a credible source. Their data is unverified, out of date, and doesn’t reflect the new stucture of PT with the newly drawn bounderies..
F fredo May 31, 2012
The forum is open for you to present your more credible “facts” in rebuttal.
If we ever want Tacoma to be a truly world class city then we are going to have to set our fares accordingly. The days of giving people $10 rides for a dollar fifty are coming to an end.T tacoma_1 May 31, 2012
fredo
Correcting your numerous incorrect facts would be a fulltime job, and I already have one of those.
btw, you’re out of date on PT’s fares too. It’s $2 to ride da bus these days.
T tacoma_1 June 1, 2012
JJ
Your lInk goes to a 2009 Seattle Transit blog. Fredo’s #18 past listed $1.50 as the fare.
Wikipedia can’t be accurate becuase PT just redrew their boundaries recently and hasn’t stopped serving the exurbs yet such as Sumner yet.
F fredo June 1, 2012
tacoma_1
In post #11 you demand that other posters back up their positions with FACTS.
In post #19 you excuse your own lack of facts by mentioning that you have a “full time job”
I’d say that the credibility in question here isn’t the Wikipedia information I posted…but rather your own credibility.
F fredo June 1, 2012
tacoma1 that was an interesting article.
The author didn’t discuss sales tax subsidy levels regarding public transit or fare levels. He just made some observations about the existence of public transit and real estate valuations.
There are many reasons why real estate might increase in value in one neighborhood more than another. One of the reasons might be transit but the author didn’t conclude that this was the only reason. At no point does he show that property values went up because of transit .
At any rate all that is moot, the discussion here isn’t about whether we are going to have transit. It’s about whether we should increase the already overly generous subsidy that transit recieves.
T tacoma_1 June 1, 2012
And because transit is a key ingredient to making communities walkable, it’s value is more than just a bus ride. The viability, health, and wealth of our citizens, our neighborhoods and downtown Tacoma depend on transit.
King County metro gets 1% sales tax.
Pierce Transit only gets .7% sales tax.
In comparison to our northern neighbor, we havent been overly generous to Pierce Transit at all.
F fredo June 1, 2012
The issue, tacoma1, ISN’T “should we have a transit system”, even though that is what you want the issue to be. We are agreed that we should have a transit system.
The issue IS “should we increase the sales tax to further subsidize the service?”Just because Seattle has been overly generous with it’s sales tax outlays for transit doesn’t mean that Tacoma hasn’t ALSO been overly generous. .7% may not sound generous to you, but when you multiply it by millions or billions of dollars in sales it becomes a very significant amount. It’s plenty sufficient as long as PT doesn’t overspend on salaries and other overhead items.
There’s no need to compete with Seattle to see who can have the highest tax rate. I’ll be happy to lose that contest.E Erik B. June 1, 2012
I think everyone likes buses and bus service.
One of the main issues here is the potentially negative impact Pierce Transit’s proposal might have on Tacoma.
As it stands now, Tacoma has a 9.5 sales tax rate, tied with the highest taxing rates cities in Washington.
Trying to force Tacoma to tax residents and visitors at record 9.8 tax rate, in excess of any city in the state, could be the tax “straw” that breaks the “back” of Tacoma’s businesses and consequently City of Tacoma’s tax coffers and the city’s ability to draw and retain businesses.
Anything, including tax rates, if too excessive become toxic no matter how well-intentioned.
A AreteTacoma June 1, 2012
Do you know which sales taxes Tacoma has that Seattle lacks. We used to be lower, but now have that extra 0.1% (I think) for mental health, which draws us even, but considering we’re 0.3% lower on transit, I can’t figure out what may account for the equal rate. Was that MetroParks bond a couple years back funded by sales tax? Anyone know where we can find a break down of the total rates?
F fredo June 1, 2012
good post arete.
We should have a periodic review of all these taxes. some may have outlived their usefulness. I can’t speak for anyone else, but our family would enjoy having a lower tax rate. It would permit my kids to enjoy a few of the activities that they see other kids enjoying. Taxes for critical services, YES. Taxes for politicians pet projects, NO.