Sound Transit Car Tab Mendacity

Seattle residents should welcome the Seattle Times 1/15/22 headline “SPD: No more stops for expired car tabs.”   The “car tab” issue is another example of Sound Transit mendacity and incompetence. This mendacity began with a Sound Transit 7/8/2016 post entitled: “ST3 plan would cost typical adult $169 annually or $14 per month”. 

Here’s how much a typical adult would pay if ST3 is approved: 

MVET 

An adult owning the median value motor vehicle would pay an additional $43 per year in MVET if ST3 were passed. The updated calculation reflects an annual median value $5,333 of vehicles in the Sound Transit District. MVET taxes are determined by a state of Washington depreciation schedule for a specific vehicle’s model and production year. The previous calculation relied on a less representative average vehicle value of $10,135 for the more expansive tri-county area, for a significantly higher annual cost of $78 per adult.  

Yet Sound Transit's response to voter complaints was even more mendacity. An April 2017 Seattle Times article, “Sound Transit 3 car tab rollback threatens light rail to Everett”, included the following: 

During the campaign, Sound Transit was completely transparent about the taxes. We all knew that our car tabs would increase a lot in 2017 to help fund Sound Transit. So, when the first invoices arrived, the vast majority of people just paid their tabs. But a vocal minority, with big tabs from expensive cars, took their displeasure to Olympia, hoping that the Legislature would listen to their stories and disregard the will of the people. 

Sound Transit’s version of “the will of the people” ignores voters' approval of two initiatives to end car tabs. Sound Transit managed to continue the car tabs by claiming they had already issued bonds based on the fees and that the voters were misled by the initiatives.  

The result is I recently paid $310 for MVT for the car tab renewal for my 2016 Subaru Forrester. That fee for the 1.1% MVT charge says the 6-year-old car is worth $28,181.82. The Kelly Blue Book says it is worth $17,000.  

More Sound Transit mendacity. 

Seattle Times Ignores I-405 Congestion

 The Seattle Times “Transportation Package” in their January 9th editorial, “Legislature’s opportunity in election-year session” seems to provide a “mixed message.” It begins with: 

 The Legislature has delayed far too long in passing a meaningful infrastructure improvement package. 

Urges law makers: 

redouble efforts to make a long-term investment in the state’s bridges, roads, and transit. 

Yet later opines: 

The good news is lawmakers can use the billions of dollars, available and anticipated, without raising the gas tax, and invest today in long-term transportation needs. 

And concludes with: 

The good news is lawmakers can use the billions of dollars, available and anticipated, from federal infrastructure spending, state revenue surpluses and the “cap and invest” carbon program without raising the gas tax and invest today in long-term transportation needs. 

Thus, it’s not clear what the paper is advocating. What’s missing is any “Transportation Package” concern dealing with congestion. Other blog posts have detailed the Seattle Times decade-long failure to ask legislators require a performance audit of Sound Transit’s Prop 1 extensions. Even a cursory analysis would have revealed light rail routed through DSTT didn’t have the capacity to accommodate the transit ridership needed to reduce I-5 or I-90 congestion. 

 

This post details the paper’s failure to fault WSDOT’s approach to I-405 congestion. More than 4 years ago, a Dec 25, 2017, Seattle Times article included the following regarding plans for reducing I-405 travel times between Renton and Bellevue: 

  

In 2019, work crews on Interstate 405 will start building a new lane in each direction between Renton and Bellevue, as part of a series of changes that aim to improve traffic flow on what officials call Washington’s worst corridor for congestion.  

Then, five years later, the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) will open the new lanes, and an existing one each way, to traffic as express toll lanes, extending the interstate’s current tolling system between Lynnwood and Bellevue that opened in 2015. 

WSDOT will spend $1.22 billion on the upcoming project, funded by the statewide gas-tax increase approved by the Legislature in 2015. 

According to the Times, I-405 work was to begin in 2019, money was available, and lanes would be complete in 2024. Yet, the Seattle Times abides WSDOT not doing anything to add the new lanes. Also, ignoring WSDOT’s imposing HOT fees on I-405 HOV lanes between Lynnwood and Bellevue that increased GP lane congestion and didn’t meet 45 mph HOV target during peak commute.  

GP lane congestion increased because WSDOT implemented HOT fees on two lanes: increasing traffic on remaining GP lanes. During peak commute, HOV traffic slowed because the increased congestion on GP lane resulted in too many drivers willing to pay the WSDOT’s limited fees. (Plans to implement HOT on two of four lanes between Renton and Bellevue would have exacerbated both problems.) 

GP and HOV lane congestion could both be reduced if HOV and HOT fees were limited to one lane. The added lane would reduce GP traffic per lane, reducing congestion. HOV lane congestion could be reduced by raising HOT fees to limit traffic to the 2000 vehicles per hour needed to assure 45 mph. Sound Transit could implement BRT on the HOV lane with 45 mph commutes along entire I-405 corridor from Lynnwood to Burien.  Adding transit ridership and further reducing congestion. 

Instead, the Seattle Times ignores both the delay and potential benefits for I-405 commuters. 

Seattle Times Decade of Enabling Sound Transit Debacle

This year marks a decade of the Seattle Times enabling Sound Transit to perpetuate the biggest transportation boondoggle in history. It also marks a decade of my filing as a candidate for office, attempting to use the Voters’ Pamphlet to attract attention to this blog detailing that boondoggle. It began when I filed as a candidate against Rep. Ross Hunter for 48th District Representative. My Seattle Times Candidate Interview was cut short because I persisted with my concerns to Editor Kate Riley that East Link was of more concerns to 48th district than the Mcleary school financing issue. That Sound Transit should not be allowed to confiscate I-90 Bridge center roadway and devastate the route into Bellevue for a light rail system limited to half the DSTT capacity. Since then, none of my subsequent candidacies have merited an interview, with the Seattle Times either ignoring or belittling them as that of a “perennial losing candidate.”  

The Times has spent the decade enabling a Sound Transit Board composed of elected officials who clearly haven’t understood what constituted effective public transit. That increasing transit ridership required increasing access to stations and transit routes with the capacity needed to desired destinations. Yet the paper ignored emails of posts detailing Sound Transit’s decade of refusing to add parking at existing or new P&Rs with access to BRT routes into Seattle. They also ignored attempts to expose that failure by including a performance audit of Sound Transit as one of the paper's legislative top-ten priorities. 

Instead, the Seattle Times response to Sound Transit 3 exemplified their failure. They allowed Sound Transit to claim ridership for ST3 extensions that ignored Sound Transit’s failure to add parking for access and ridership that exceeded DSTT capacity. They allowed Sound Transit to lie about MVT fees prior to the 2016 vote and then lie about lying after the vote claiming they hadn't misled voters.  They’ve enabled Sound Transit to use the 2016 vote approval for a $54 billion transit system expansion from 2017 to 2041 to increase to $113 billion from 2017 to 2046 with taxes extended for decades beyond. 

The Times abetted Sound Transit’s 2019 Financial Plan & Proposed Budget Long-Range plan that continued their decade-long refusal to increase bus ridership by adding parking and routes through 2041. However, the lack of added parking didn’t prevent the Times from abiding budget claims annual Link ridership would increase from 26 million in 2019 to 162 million in 2041.  

It was that “optimism” that presumably led to the Seattle Times Traffic Lab heralding the Northgate Link debut as “Transit Transformed” claiming the Link’s “three stations would add 42,000 to 49,000 riders” daily. It’s been 3 months since the debut without any Link ridership results.  What was “Transit Transformed” is no longer of interest. 

The Sound Transit Board’s response has been to ignore the Northgate Link debut’s results and proceed with plans to add $1.7B next year to the ~$8B spent on Prop 1 extensions and $22B on TIP to complete them but nothing to increase parking for access. The Board refuses to recognize increasing transit ridership requires increasing access with parking.  The Seattle Times Traffic Lab could use the Northgate Link debut to demonstrate the problem by "digging-into" how many used the three Link stations for the commutes into Seattle.  Instead they continue abiding  Sound Transit's failure to release the results, enabling they continue with Prop 1 as planned.  My objective as a Senate candidate is to use the Voters’ Pamphlet to expose the need to stop them.  

2021, Sound Transit's Year of Debacle

Sound Transit’s 2021 year of debacle began with a January 8th, Seattle Times Traffic Lab article "Costs soar to extend light rail to West Seattle and Ballard". February 14th and 15th Seattle Times Traffic Lab articles, "$11.5 billion shortfall in Sound Transit funding" followed suggesting another transit-tax ballot may be the "new money" needed. In February, the Sound Transit Board decided to no longer archive videos of meetings.                                                                                                                               The March 24th version of their December 2020, 2021- Financial Plan & Adopted Budgett included $2.7B in “unfunded expenditures” with funding needed exceeding allowable debt in their $96B 2017-2041 long-range plan.  An April 22, 2021 "Financial Plan Update" to the Board included a chart, "Financial Plan Unaffordable" with the "Unfunded expenditures" increasing from $2.7B to $7.9B.  

 Board Chair Keel responded to members' concern with the increased costs with an April 30th letter proposing delaying projects until they could borrow the funds.  The “Realignment” was presented to Board during the June 24th meeting and confirmed August 5th. An August 3rd Seattle Transit Blog announced, “Metro and Sound Transit propose service increases in 2022.”  In September, the Board adopted the Transit Development Plan 2021-2026 including chart showing Link ridership from March 2020 to March 2021 was flat at ~20% of pre-Covid ridership. The adopted plan finalized the 2022 Service plans for 125 daily 4-car Link routes from Northgate to Angle Lake.    

A Sound Transit Q3 Financial Report 10-21-21, provided an August YTD 2021 Financial Performance Report to the Board’s Financial and Audit Committee.  It detailed August YTD ridership was 39% or 5.8M under budget. That Link ridership had declined by 70% from 2019 to 2021 August YTD.  The August YTD Fare Revenue was 50% or $14.6M under budget and the Link Farebox Recovery was only 6%, a fraction of Sound Transit’s 40% target.   

Thus, 2021 was clearly a bad year for Sound Transit, even before the Northgate Link debut. The October 2nd debut seemingly added to Board’s concerns since the October and November meetings were “off-air”. The Board’s December 16th meetings were “on-air” with Sound Transit presenting their 2022 Financial Plan and Proposed Budget and Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) to the Board’s Financial and Budget Committee meeting for approval and later approval by entire Board.  

The 199-page 2022 Budget included extensive details concerning where the money was coming from and how it was spent with Transit Operating Budget and Project Budgets. The Project Budget included $1.71B in 2022 for Link extensions and $22B for authorized TIP.  However, it neglected to include any Service Provided by the transit modes. The 2022 Budget and TIP were unanimously approved without question by both the finance committee and Board with no mention of Northgate Link results or service provided by transit modes.     

The bottom line is 2021 was the year the Board went from archiving videos of meetings to “off-air” meetings, limiting the exposure of a board composed of elected transit officials with no understanding of what constitutes effective public transit. It was the year the “Service Delivery Performance Report Q1 2021” ended their quarterly reports of trips provided, boardings per trip, and cost per boarding for the transit modes.                                                                                                                               

Most important, however, it was the year the Northgate Link debut demonstrated a decade of Sound Transit’s failure to provide commuters with access to transit.  That light rail extensions without adequate access won’t attract commuters needed to reduce congestion into Seattle.  That extending light rail beyond UW stadium station did nothing to increase capacity limited by DSTT.  Thus, during peak commute, riders with access to Norhgate Link limited access to UW Link riders. During off-peak commute when parking was full the operating costs for the nearly empty 4-car trains dwarfed farebox revenue.   

 Finally, 2021 was the year the Northgate Link debut portended the failure of Prop 1 extensions to reduce congestion into Seattle.  Yet the Sound Transit Board seemingly ignored that result when they approved a budget to spend $1.7B on Prop 1 extensions in 2022 and $22B on (TIP) to complete them.  Now it’s only a question of how long it will take this board to release the Northgate Link debut results that demonstrates that failure.

My Senatorial candidacy's goal is to use the Voters' Pamphlet to expose the need to expedite that release.