I was perversely disappointed yesterday when I searched around, and looked at my receipts from the day, and discovered that the Sound Transit 2 sales tax increase of 0.5% had yet to take place (pdf). All the ST2 documents before the election had indicated that we’d see a sales tax increase on January 1 — but not so!
I put in a call to Sound Transit, and the sales tax increase has been delayed until April, after the ST2 implementation plan is approved by the Sound Transit board. Apparently there have also been some technical delays in setting up the mechanism to collect the tax with the Department of Revenue.
Either way, Seattle residents like me get a three month reprieve from a 9.5% sales tax. Even if it is worth it.
The “worth it” link has several lies in it, so it’s probably not the best link to post.
Most of the stations will not be “hubs,” and it will also not be taking “millions” of people out of their cars.
The system around Link is structured such that each station will act like a multi-modal hub. Also, it extends across the multiple senses of the term, including “hub of activity”, “neighborhood hub”, etcetera.
Furthermore, it says “has the capacity to” and it only says “million”, as in 1. Given projected max frequency and headways, that’s the right figure.
This post reminded me that I need to pick out a new car before the new tax comes into effect.
I was looking for the same thing last morning, too. We own the Quiznos on Capitol Hill (a block from the future Link station!) and wondered when is the Department of Revenue going to send us a sales tax increase notice if the tax is supposed to begin on Jan 1.
No way! That’s why the Quiznos had a Mass Transit Now sign! :D
I might have to come for a visit some day
[...] haven’t even started collecting the additional taxes yet, but here’s the schedule of the service [...]
[...] its first casualty as a result of the recession. Thanks to lower sales tax collections, and a three-month delay in implementing the tax in the first place, there will not be 100,000 new service hours in 2009; [...]