The Sound Transit Board’s comment in the Feb 14th
article on I-976 personifies a decade of board arrogance: “ST3 car-tab taxes should be lowered to reflect market value
of vehicles, but only if the Legislature finds replacement money”’. They seem to
forget it was Sound Transit board members who in 2015 initially asked the
legislature to enable the public to vote for an additional $1 billion a year in
taxes for 15 years to fund ST3 “Prop 1 and beyond” extensions.
Sound Transit used that legislation to get
public approval for $54 billion in additional taxes by 2041. Sound Transit’s 2019 budget projects
ST3 passage will result in $64 billion in taxes during the period. Their 2019 budget projects MVET will
only generate about $6 billion of that total. That still
leaves $44 billion more than what
the board initially asked for.
Rather than “find replacement money” the
legislature should require Sound Transit be audited to explain the need for the
additional $44 billion for the ST3 extensions. Even more important the audit should require they explain
how the extensions will reduce congestion on the area’s roadways. It’s something they should have been required
to do a decade ago.
Even a cursory audit would have concluded the Sound
Transit decision to route Prop 1 extensions through the DSTT limited capacity
to a fraction of what was needed to reduce roadway congestion. That Sound Transit will exacerbate the extension’s capacity
problem by using them to replace bus routes for the commutes into and out of
Seattle. The result being transit
capacity into Seattle will be reduced and any riders added by the extensions
will reduce access for current riders. That spending billions on extensions to replace bus routes
does nothing to increase the transit ridership needed to reduce congestion.
At this point nothing can be done about the billions
already spent on extensions beyond University Link and SeaTac or on East Link. However an audit could still refute Sound
Transit extension ridership claims. That Sound Transit’s claim for
41,000 to 49,000 Northgate Link riders by 2022 was delusional. That claims the extensions to Lynnwood would
attract an additional 47,000 to 55,000 daily riders by 2026 were even more
absurd.
The Lynnwood claim presumably played a major
role in Sound Transit getting a $1.2 billion FTA federal grant in 2018. The $790 million FTA commitment to Federal Way last year was also likely the result of Sound Transit’s claim Lynnwood and Federal Way extensions
would add 90,000 daily riders.
It’s not clear what an audit debunking Sound
Transit ridership claims would do to the FTA grants. However an
audit could prevent them from spending much of their $1.75 billion Capital Expenditures
2021 budget on the extensions to Lynnwood and beyond and to Federal Way and
beyond. Those savings would dwarf the loss from I-976,
ending the need for replacement funding.
Lacking the audit it will take another year to
refute Sound Transit funding needs.
Northgate Link operation in 2021 will debunk Sound Transit claims not
only for light rail ridership but claims for benefits from using light rail to replace bus routes into Seattle. Sound Transit should recognize the failure of Northgate operation to reduce congestion will mark the end of the need for funding extensions to
Lynnwood and beyond and to Federal Way, ending the need for car tab fees and
other ST3 taxes.
The Northgate Link demonstration will also be a
precursor to East Link operation in 2023.
That will not only debunk any Sound Transit claims for east side
benefits, it will halve capacity from Seatac to Seattle belying any benefits
for extensions to Federal Way and beyond. Further justifying the reduction in ST3 funding.
The bottom line is it’s only a question of
whether an audit, Northgate Link operation and East Link operation demonstrate
Sound Transit shouldn’t have access to car tab fees. That ST3 funds should not be spent replacing bus routes with
light rail that won’t reduce congestion but expanding bus transit ridership
that will.
An audit will expedite both and save billions.
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