Gavin Cooley: Spokane can support transit without another billion-dollar tax

By Gavin Cooley

This August, the Spokane Transit Authority is asking voters to approve a 20-year sales tax running through 2048 – a roughly $1 billion tax to replace one STA told us was temporary and would end in 2028. This is not a vote about cutting the transit service Spokane relies on today. It is a choice about whether to lock in another billion dollars to new transit projects, on top of the service STA already provides.

STA’s own financial record should give voters pause. In 2016, STA said the temporary tax was needed to fund more than 25 projects. Those projects are now finished – but STA ended up collecting far more than it needed to pay for them. Between 2017 and 2024, STA’s uncommitted reserves grew by $234 million – $65 million more than the temporary tax itself brought in.

Here is what matters most: Core transit service is not at risk. Voting “no” does not cut STA’s funding. It simply lets the temporary tax expire, as promised. STA keeps its permanent 0.6% sales tax – which will generate about $3 billion over the next 20 years – plus tens of millions each year from fares, grants and investment income, and $274 million already in reserve. That is more than enough to sustain the service riders count on. This 0.2% tax is for expansion, not survival.

The larger question facing voters is one of community priorities. The 0.2% tax raises more than $30 million a year. Letting it expire preserves that taxing capacity – and gives this community room to decide where our limited public dollars are needed most. Spokane is under extraordinary pressure from gaps in mental health treatment, addiction recovery, public safety, homelessness and downtown revitalization. These are not abstractions. They are daily realities for families, neighborhoods, businesses and the future of our city.

Consider just one measure. As of Sept. 30, CDC data ranks Spokane second out of 238 U.S. jurisdictions over 300,000 people for overdose deaths per capita. Spokane County recorded 344 overdose deaths in 2025 – nearly one a day. When that is Spokane’s reality, expanded transit projects cannot be the first claim on our community’s limited tax dollars.

Addressing those priorities would strengthen transit, too. STA riders and drivers benefit from safer stops, effective crisis response, a healthier downtown and fewer people in crisis left untreated on buses or in public spaces. A transit system does not operate apart from the community around it.

Transit matters. But right now, Spokane should not commit another billion dollars to new transit projects while a more immediate community crisis goes underfunded. Voting “no” is not anti-transit. It is responsible community stewardship.

Gavin Cooley is the president of Spokane Business Association and was formerly the city of Spokane’s chief financial officer for 17 years.