Tag Archives: ST3

Setting priorities: King, Pierce and Snohomish counties–or for Sammamish

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As the Nov. 8 election approaches, the Sammamish City Council still has not taken a formal position on whether it supports Sound Transit 3 (ST3). The topic is set for discussion at the Oct. 4 Council meeting.

Sammamish City Council: Back row, L-R: Tom Odell, Mayor Don Gerend, Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama, Tom Hornish. Front row, L-R: Kathy Huckabay, Christie Malchow, Bob Keller.

Sammamish City Council: Back row, L-R: Tom Odell, Mayor Don Gerend, Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama, Tom Hornish. Front row, L-R: Kathy Huckabay, Christie Malchow, Bob Keller.

Five of the seven members previously said they oppose ST3 as it currently is laid out. Two members, Kathy Huckabay and Bob Keller, support ST3 in the name of regionalism. While regionalism is an admirable goal, the plan needs to make sense. ST3 has serious flaws.

Even Mayor Don Gerend, who is a regionalist and represents Sammamish on many such committees, finds the ST3 plan so bad and so disadvantageous to Sammamish, that he declared his opposition to ST3.

As this column has reported several times, the $54bn plan doesn’t even guarantee a single project. It only guarantees that taxpayers will no longer have the power of the vote over new taxes. This power shifts solely to the ST board, which is comprised of appointed people not the least bit accountable to taxpayers.

ST3 proposes less bus service for Sammamish, which now is the second or third largest city on the Eastside.

ST3 says it will give Sammamish a north end park-n-ride. But as noted, this isn’t guaranteed.

For this reduction in service, removal of direct taxpayer authority over new taxes and a park-n-ride that may not even get built, Sammamish taxpayers get to pay between $500m and $550m over the next 25 years.

It’s overdue for the City Council to stand up and take a position.

Supporting ST3—or not—is a matter of the City Council setting the right priorities for the people they were elected to represent. They were not elected to represent the greater King County, nor Piece County nor Snohomish County—all part of the Sound Transit taxing district.

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Sammamish: Step up and take a position on ST3

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st3-map

  • ST3 will take money away from Sammamish taxpayers to fix local transportation issues. See below the jump.

The Sammamish City Council needs to step up and take a formal position on Sound Transit 3, the $54bn cost, $27bn in new taxes for a 25-year construction plan that gives our city less bus service and a one-half billion dollar park-n-ride–maybe.

A front page article in The Seattle Times on Sept. 19 details the effort–and opposition–to extend light rail to Issaquah.

An editorial in the same edition details Newcastle’s recent Council vote opposing ST 3 for the very same reasons Sammamish should: taxation without transportation, as Sammamish Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama so eloquently put it. The Bellevue Chamber of Commerce also decided to oppose ST3, reversing its support given for ST2. It likewise points to the extraordinary cost with questionable benefits.

The Comment opposes ST3.

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Sammamish Council split on supporting ST3; taxpayers get to pay about half a billion dollars for a park-n-ride

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Seattle Times image.C

Update, July 17: Council Member Tom Odell had been engaged in family matters when this post was written. He has now supplied his position on ST3. It is added below.

The Sammamish City Council is split whether to support or opposed ST3, the new mass transit plan headed for the November ballot for voter approval.

The Sound Transit Board approved ST3 for the November ballot. This $54bn, $27bn new taxes package plans for new rail and bus routes over 25 years. New park-and-rides are also included.

Sammamish City officials estimate our residents will pay an average $1,100 per year per household in new taxes. In return, a park-and-ride is slated for the north end but bus service is actually reduced.

In a heated debate, the City Council in May approved mass transit “principals,” but stopped short of taking a position on ST3 itself. Every Council Member except Bob Keller expressed disappointment or opposition to the draft ST3 plan; Keller did not express a view one way or another.

The Comment opposes ST3 because of the details of the plan regionally, the cost to Sammamish taxpayers and the reduction of service to our City. Additionally, the proposed light rail extension to Issaquah has a target date of 2041. Instead of going directly to Seattle, it goes to downtown Bellevue, where rail riders would have to connect to go to Seattle.

Sammamish Gets a Park-N-Ride

Sammamish gets a Park-N-Ride out of ST3. It also gets reduced bus service. Given the average taxes and fees the average household will pay over 25 years if the plan is approved in November, Sammamish citizens will pay more than a half billion dollars for this park-n-ride and reduced service.

Now that ST3 is headed for the ballot, Sammamish Comment surveyed the Council members for their definitive position on the issue. Their responses are below.

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Sound Transit to approve ST3 plan Thursday

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Seattle Times graphic. Sound Transit added stations in Kirkland and North Seattle in an effort to win votes for ST3.

June 21, 2016: Sound Transit’s Board is to approve the $54bn, 25-year ST3 transit plan Thursday. Voters will be asked to approve $27bn in new taxes in November.

Across King County, the average homeowner is projected to pay about $500 more in taxes and fees annually. This includes new property and sales taxes and a sharp hike in the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax to $80 per $10,000 of vehicle value, as determined by the State. Vehicle values differ dramatically from Kelly Blue Book values when the MVET tax was similar in 1996, prior to repeal for $30 car tabs.

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SCA endorses Mass Transit “Principals;” Sammamish lone dissenting vote

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City_of_SammamishThe Sound Cities Assn. (SCA) approved a resolution endorsing “principals” of mass transit for the Sound Transit taxing district (roughly Everett to Tacoma, Seattle to Sammamish) with Sammamish as the lone dissenting vote.

Four other members of SCA which are not in ST district abstained.

A majority of the Sammamish City Council opposed the “principals” as a thinly disguised endorsement of the $50bn Sound Transit 3 draft plan. ST wants voter approval for $27bn in new taxes. Sammamish gets nothing in the proposed new plan, except an average of more than $500 a year in new taxes: no new service and in some respects, service is taken away.

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