Fate of STA tax riding on public faith

The Spokane Transit Authority’s ballot issue may hinge on change.

Voters will get a chance Tuesday to cast their ballot on the proposed 0.3 percent sales tax increase (3 cents on a $10 purchase). Those on both sides of the issue say that a key question to ask before voting is whether STA has changed enough in the last year and one-half to warrant the public’s faith.

On the surface, this STA ballot issue looks a lot like the one that failed in September 2002.

The transit agency is seeking the same amount of money and is again warning of drastic cuts if it doesn’t pass.

But there are some key differences.

This ballot issue has a five-year sunset clause, giving voters a chance to reapprove the tax or deny it, depending on their satisfaction with STA. It’s a nod from the STA board to the business community, which demanded the increased accountability before it threw its support behind the measure.

And the board will consider at its next meeting setting a limit on the amount of reserves it can accumulate. If reserves reach the limit, the tax collected would drop to .2 percent.

STA has been more specific this time around about the cuts it will make if the tax is defeated.

“We have made it clear to STA that we intend to be part of ongoing accountability and review,” said Rich Hadley, president of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber endorsed the ballot issue this year, but did not take a position in 2002.

“As we saw the plan for reductions that they announced if this does not pass, it did not seem to us that this is what a growing, mid-sized city can accept for a transit system,” Hadley said.

Change in campaigns

The tax would raise about $18 million a year, replacing money lost to STA after it lost its share of the state’s motor vehicle excise tax when car tabs were reduced to $30.

While STA warned of cuts if the 2002 issue failed, those reductions never took place because the board decided to fall back on its reserve accounts.

Now that those reserves have been drawn down, STA officials have scheduled cutbacks for July if the ballot issue fails Tuesday.

They include a 40 percent reduction in fixed route bus service and a 17 percent reduction in paratransit van service. There would be no bus operations after 7 p.m. or on Sundays, and routes to Fairchild Air Force Base, Medical Lake, Millwood and Greenacres would be eliminated.

Perhaps some of the biggest changes are in the campaigns for and against the measure. While those favoring the tax are more organized and have raised more money than in 2002, opposition to the ballot issue has not formally coalesced this year.

As of Friday, Save Our Transit had raised more than $58,000 in cash and in-kind donations.

Those opposed never registered with the Washington Public Disclosure Commission to solicit donations and were relying on signs left over from the 2002 campaign and volunteer efforts.

Employees have been more energized this campaign than last, said Dennis Antonellis, president of the local Amalgamated Transit Union which represents many STA employees.

About 150 employees have been warned they will lose their jobs without the additional tax income.

“Once the notices went out to the employees that they were at-risk employees and could be laid off in July, everybody started to take this more seriously,” Antonellis said. “It’s a wake-up call.”

The backbone

Employees aren’t the only people working on the campaign, he pointed out.

Social service groups, business associations and others are backing the ballot issue.

“The Spokane Alliance has been the backbone of the grass-roots effort,” Antonellis said.

The Alliance is a group of churches and unions with common goals, representing thousands of local residents. Alliance leaders have organized much of the campaign phone-banking and door-belling efforts.

That group wasn’t fully developed a year and one-half ago, when voters turned down the last STA tax attempt.

A key difference between the Spokane Alliance and traditional campaign groups is that it won’t disappear after the election. The organization will be around working on other issues . . . and watching STA, said Austin DePaolo, Alliance leader and executive director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center.

The STA Board has taken notice of the Spokane Alliance, even adopting last month some of the group’s recommendations for how to make the board and staff more accessible to the public. Board meetings will be held in the evenings now rather than during the work day, and STA CEO Kim Zentz will hold quarterly town hall meetings.

“It’s very clear to me that they have a different mentality at work there,” said Alliance leader Tom Robinson.

Many proponents of the tax cited STA’s increased openness and intent focus over the past year on reaching out to the public for recommendations as evidence that the agency has improved.

STA has changed, but not enough, said Spokane Valley City Councilman Steve Taylor, who opposes the tax.

“The structure of public transit in this area needs to be reinvented. Giving (STA) another $18 million will make sure the money is available to maintain the status quo we have in place,” Taylor said.

STA needs to abandon the status quo in favor of drastic reforms like using much smaller buses and charging higher fares for longer rides, he added.

“I think there’s been a change, and it’s been a positive change,” said Cheney resident Charles Booth, who added he’ll vote for the tax increase.

“I don’t understand what else can be done,” he said.

But Jeri Vige, who lives between Cheney and Spokane, disagrees.

“They had all this excess money and spent it all, and now they’re crying,” Vige said.

Who’s riding?

Spokane County Commissioner and STA Board member Kate McCaslin points to a more business-like attitude at STA since Zentz’s arrival in the spring of 2003.

“The first two weeks she was there she dropped three management positions,” said McCaslin of Zentz, adding that STA employees are held more accountable for their work now than before.

Reorganization and cost-cutting measures are already producing results, said Zentz.

In 2002, the operating costs for fixed-route buses were $77.66 per hour. That dropped to $76.29 per hour in 2003. Paratransit operating costs per hour fell slightly from $52.35 in 2002 to $52.22 in 2003.

There have been mixed results in another key area of concern for STA – ridership. Paratransit trips climbed from more than 435,000 in 2002 to more than 454,000 last year, but fixed-route bus passenger trips dropped from about 7,522,000 to 7,504,000. And, unfortunately for STA, paratransit trips are the most expensive.

Low ridership is a key complaint of opponents to the tax. They say that STA needs to prove it can manage the bus system to attract more riders before it deserves more money.

“If you watch closely, you can see in those buses there’s nobody there. The public should believe their own eyes,” said John Beal, chairman of STOP (So Tired of Paying), which opposes the ballot issue and has fought other tax increases.

Beal said all tax proposals should be lumped on the fall general election ballot to give voters a chance to consider them as a group and vote for those they support the most. For instance, he would support a road bond over the transit tax.

One thing’s for certain, tax or no tax, Zentz said: There will be more change in STA’s future.

STA plans to adjust the system to provide shorter travel times, online trip planning and pass sales and more understandable schedules.

“People really have much greater expectations of the public transit system than what we’ve been providing,” she said.