Today, the Metropolitan King County Council votes on whether or not it will approve a $20 CRC (congestion reduction charge) car-tab fee to delay Metro cuts until 2014, pass the same decision to the voters in November, or reject the charge entirely, resulting in 600K hours of cuts beginning February of next year. After three public hearings, a tremendous amount of testimony has been heard in favor of the charge, ranging from disabled riders dependent on transit to people who never take Metro but support those who do.
This afternoon the public will have one last opportunity to weigh in on the issue. Public testimony on the CRC, officially Ordinance 2011-0288, will be heard around 3pm, but sign-up will begin at 1pm in the 4th Avenue Plaza of the county’s Administration Building at 500 4th Ave. The council will not vote until all testimony has been heard.
The hearing and vote will be covered in depth on Twitter, which you can follow with the #SaveKCMetro hashtag.
Anyone know that the $ figure is exactly for the cost of going to the ballot for the CRC?
I’ve heard $1Million mentioned…
That’s the value which was stated at a presentation put on by Kevin Desmond and a few TCC members at City Center Bellevue a week and a half ago.
Did they say why it would cost $1 mil to put a ballot measure on? I’m sure the food fight both sides will spend a mil a piece.
It’s going to be very hard to get that kind of money this year. Most transportation money this year will be going into the anti-tolling initiative and tunnel referendum. And even if it wins it only helps for two years.
I swear, your King County Clowncil sure lives up to their “behind the back” moniker. Many opportunities for the folks to testify, stretching out the clock and now a 20 minute delay.
My view: Either screw disabled people or govern. Sort of like how the Clowncil couldn’t fire Dean Logan even after a “no confidence” motion was tabled due to his department’s then Grand Royale failures in the 2004 election, but Mary Lane Strow (Marummy to some) & Stefan Sharkansky just kept up the nonpermissive environment long enough for Dean Logan to leave.
Not that Skagit County is much, if any, better. Just an observation.
Hah! We just punted two weeks! Beat THAT Skagit county.
Well put. Well put.
My oh my… what a bunch of chickens. I don’t see very many people anti the charge, I see people who are insisting it’s their economic lifeline.
Reeks of Lucy pulling away the football.
Well, looks like they just postponed the vote until August 15th. Hopefully in that time one or two more councilmembers will decide to support it.