King County Executive’s RapidRide Proposal

King County Executive Kurt Triplett has proposed saving five planned new RapidRide routes in Metro Transit’s highest ridership corridors and providing for an additional one-million new passenger trips a year on the 520 bridge at no net increase in taxes. His proposal would use 5.5 cents of new taxing authority granted by the 2009 legislature, but would be offset by rolling back an equal amount in two other levies.

By reprioritizing transportation dollars now spent on passenger ferries to buses, Triplett proposes 4.5 cents of the Ferry District property tax be rolled back for four years, leaving enough money to move forward with plans to expand Vashon Island and West Seattle Water Taxi passenger ferry service. Triplett proposes drawing down cash reserves from the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) program to allow for a one cent rollback to this levy without jeopardizing the work. Combined, the two tax reductions would mean no net increase in taxes to homeowners while creating more stable, dedicated funding to Metro Transit. >Read More<