Huzzah: Legislature Adjourns with Sound Transit Funding Intact

In adjourning the 65th legislative session, Washington state legislators left Sound Transit 3 (ST3) funding fully intact. Transit supporters breathed sigh of relief. Pressure they had applied on legislators helped reverse the momentum on what seemed like a sure-thing bill early in the session.

The Urbanist’s readers alone sent 511 letters to legislators asking them to save Sound Transit funding. Our Save ST3 campaign began in January as soon as car tab bills were introduced and continued right up to the end of session. Efforts to defend ST3 united a broad coalition including Seattle Subway, NW Progressive, Seattle Transit Riders Union, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, The Stranger, Transportation Choices Coalition, and many more.

Throughout the session, legislators on both sides of the aisle had expressed an interest in modifying the car tab formula, which funds ST3 projects and was approved by voters. Republicans were out for blood and wanted to cut ST3 funding by nearly a quarter, taking a hatchet to the car tab formulas. Democrats had various proposals that ranged from cutting more than $2.1 billion in ST3 funding to partially backfilling cuts through other means.

Earlier in the session, Democrats had considered a bill sponsored by Rep. Kristine Reeves (D-Federal Way) to allow payment plans on a half-yearly or quarterly basis for car tabs. Under state law, car tabs must be paid in full at the time of vehicle re-registration. Allowing payment plans, as proposed, would have created a system similar to property tax payments, which can be paid in installments instead of all at once, blunting the sticker shock and spacing the financial burden. Unfortunately, that bill never passed out of the House.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats had considered several measures in their car tab bill to speed up ST3 projects, protect the integrity of light rail and bus rapid transit project delivery, and partially pay for cuts to car tabs, albeit by taking away funding for homeless youth in the King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. The House had planned to stick to their guns by saddling ST3 with $780 million in direct funding cuts with longer-term financing costs estimated at $2.1 billion.

Fortunately, House Democrats were thwarted by lack of time remaining on the legislative clock, Democratic holdouts representing Sound Transit areas, and Republicans who think that car tabs are a winning issue in the age of Trump and want to push for even deeper cuts. Spoiler: Republicans lost hard in the 48th Legislative District in November even whiling running on this very issue, which gave Democrats full control of the legislature.