There’s a Better Way for Snohomish County

Proposition 1, placed on Snohomish County’s September 18 primary ballot by Community Transit, would increase the sales tax .3 cents per dollar to fund new and existing transit routes and services.

This amounts to $39 for every man, woman, and child.

There’s a better way.

Community Transit took offense when we voted to keep more of our hard-earned money in the Passage of I-695, the $30 car tab initiative. The transit unions sued us when we voted to give citizens veto power over tax hikes – they found a judge who thwarted the will of the people and overturned an initiative that passed statewide with nearly 60 percent support. And now they want to raise our taxes. Snohomish county consumers should beware.

It is tempting to support a proposition dealing with transit… particularly when our highways are so congested. Don’t fool yourself. Your neighbor won’t get out of his car if this tax hike passes. If Community Transit gets this tax hike, congestion will be entirely unaffected. Well, perhaps the Snohomish County economy will turn further down, decreasing the number of jobs, and therefore, commuters – so maybe there is a scenario, after all, wherein this tax hike could affect congestion. It’s not worth it. There’s a better way.

Proposition 1 would give Snohomish County the highest sales tax of any county in the state. Many county retailers, and their employees, will be hurt when the public figures out they can save money on big-ticket items by going to Skagit or King counties to make their purchases. Because of this, proceeds to Snohomish County from sales taxes would be inadvertently reduced, threatening county programs.

Washington CSE believes there is a better way. Peter Drucker, a leading business guru, said “efficiency is doing things right, effectiveness is doing right things.” Often a government agency does a fine job. They follow the book right to the letter. Seldom, however, is the book questioned. The result of this is that they do something well that doesn’t need to be done at all! The transit system needs to get its house in order before it asks for more taxpayer money. They need to ask the hard questions of themselves. It is politically easier for them to ask for tax hikes than to ask their allies if they can do something less expensively; or better yet, whether it needs doing at all.

An example of the type of uncomfortable questions that Community Transit needs to answer: “Do you still provide health club memberships to all your employees?” Honest, public answers to questions like this will enable Community Transit to improve their abysmal cost per service hour rating (Community Transit – $120.16; Everett Transit – $76.59) by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT Summary of Public Transportation, 1999, the latest data available). By this performance measure, Community Transit is the least efficient transit agency in the state; their busses costing almost double the statewide median of $65.96 per hour.

Everett Transit has shown that it is possible to operate a comparable service with less. Everett Transit operates on .3 cents sales tax revenue. Community Transit currently operates on twice that – .6 cents… and that’s not enough for them! They want to increase it another .3 cents. Everett Transit is proof positive that there is a better way.

I urge all Snohomish County taxpayers to vote no on Tuesday, September 18. There is a better way.