The Spokane Transit Authority (STA) board will ask voters in the service areas to approve a major sales tax hike this April. As Shift previously reported, voters will be asked to approve a 0.3% increase in the local sales tax to fund a $72 million electric trolley line that would go six miles – from Spokane’s Browne’s Addition neighborhood, east through the Gonzaga University campus and ending at the Spokane Community College campus.
If approved, the local sales tax would increase to 9.0%— that’s one of the highest figures in the state. And, Spokane Transit’s “share of the sales tax will increase 50% – from 0.6% to 0.9%. Spokane Transit executives will then be maxed out on their sales tax authority.”
But, that’s not enough for the transit agency and certain legislators in Olympia. The Washington Policy Center reports that legislators—Democrats and transit advocates—have pushed for the inclusion of “$10 million in state transportation funds for the electric trolley in Spokane” in the state Senate transportation package. In other words, state drives would be asked to further subsidize public transit by partially funding the extremely unnecessary trolley project via the gas tax and other fees they pay.
The state Senate’s transportation package will be undergoing changes in the coming week. As the Washington Policy Center writes, “Hopefully, those changes will include allocating tax and fee revenues to highway projects, rather than electric follies dreamed up by transit executives.”
No thank you. I need my money to buy a new suburban.
A suburban is kind of like a small bus. When you have a passenger, you have mass transit. You should apply for a subsidy.
Subsidy for my new Suburban……….
for a moment there I almost became one of Jays Sheepople, then my moral compass got the better of me.
Admit it, you just want to eliminate transit. Go back to playing Call of Duty because I’m sure you’re sense of duty would be far different if you rode a bus once in a while and saw the kind of people who NEED a bus.
Call of Duty is pretty good!
Great idea! Send everyone to Idaho to buy their stuff! Here’s an idea, MAKE THE RIDERS PAY FOR IT!
Wow, $12 million a mile, that sounds kind of high, but it’s only tax payer money and we all know that shit grows on trees.
Trolley is not necessary… Sales tax already to high… When will the north-south great be finished????