Beginning September 10^th, King County Metro will add trips and expand service to more than a “dozen key routes” in response to transit demand (which, as a share of daily trips, has remained nearly flat since 2006).

According to a Mass Transit article, Metro is able to do this by “drawing on increasing sales tax revenue, diesel fuel cost savings and partnerships with the City of Seattle and City of Redmond.”

Voters may recall that in 2014, Metro asked them to support a regressive tax increase and threatened to cut bus service by 17% if the measure failed. The ballot measure would have increased sales taxes and yearly car fees to boost Metro’s budget and expenditures on road, transit, bike and pedestrian projects.

This recent expansion of service without regressive tax increases once again confirms our analysis that as Metro’s financial outlook was improving with record sales tax revenue in 2013 and 2014, service cuts were unnecessary. 

As Metro has demonstrated, it is possible to expand public transit without increasing regressive taxes.

You can get more information about Metro’s service changes here.