The people of Spokane recently said they do not want a $72 million electric trolley. The idea was pushed hard last year by Spokane Transit Authority (STA) officials as part of a ballot proposal to increase the sales tax. Voters rejected the proposal. But apparently some city and transit officials didn’t get the message, because they are back again promoting the same failed idea. For those officials, it’s as if last year’s “no” vote never occurred.
Transit officials have continued to name and design the trolley, all the while hoping people will pay higher taxes for it later.
How do we know? In late January, the agency held focus groups to market-test trolley names, complete with logos and designs. Focus group participants – who were apparently paid $100 each – were reportedly informed of four proposed names for the rejected electric trolley: the ‘Bing,’ the ‘Wing,’ the ‘Spoke’ and the ‘Metro.’
Some attendees contacted Washington Policy Center, thinking (correctly) that voters had turned down the project, and the taxes to fund it. They wondered, “Had the project somehow been approved anyway?”
Focus group participants were right to question the proposal. It has been nearly a year since Spokane-area voters rejected tax increases to fund Spokane Transit’s “Moving Forward” plan, which included the six-mile long trolley route. The public’s decision was clear. In fact, according to a poll taken after the election, 92 percent of voters had not changed their mind since first hearing about the plan.
Citizens became even more concerned when independent research by Washington Policy Center analysts showed transit officials were exaggerating the line’s supposed benefits. The research also showed there were less expensive alternatives available, like enhancing bus service, that are a better fit for Spokane’s existing urban transit system.
Spokane Transit’s board may decide whether or not to put a sales tax increase on the general election ballot in their upcoming meeting.
If the board opts against tax increases in the STA service area, Spokane city councilmembers have said they’d prefer to gerrymander the vote in the next general election and simply have a city vote, effectively excluding neighborhoods with high proportions of “no” voters.
It’s as if the last election was conducted as a test to find out where most “no” voters live, so their communities would be ruled out when the trolley idea and tax increase returned to the ballot.
Trolley supporters say the cost would be paid by state and federal taxpayers, arguing people in Spokane will get something for free. They neglect to mention that Spokane taxpayers are state and federal taxpayers as well.
Even if transit officials get “free” tax money from other people to build the trolley, local taxpayers would still be on the hook to pay another $4.1 million per year for operating costs. Based on cost and ridership projections, the electric trolley line would have been 20 perent more expensive per ride than ordinary bus service. This permanent cost can only be covered with a sales tax increase, cuts in public transit services elsewhere, or both.
Washington Policy Center research found some good news. Spokane Transit officials run one of the most efficient public transit agencies in the state. Given their success in operating regular buses, STA officials should rethink their plan to fund an inefficient trolley project. And they certainly shouldn’t be designing a marketing logo and planning a system which Spokane voters have already rejected.
Bob Pishue is the director of the Coles Center for Transportation at Washington Policy Center, an independent research organization with offices in Spokane, Seattle, Tri-Cities and Olympia. Online at washingtonpolicy.org.
