Drafter
Clerk 09/22/2014
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AN ORDINANCE relating to King County Metro community transportation program eligibility requirements; and amending Ordinance 13441, Section 3, and K.C.C 28.94.045.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. The Metro transit system is funded mainly by sales tax, and due to the inherently unstable and variable nature of that funding source, the amount of operating funds available from that source varies with the health of the economy. The devastating economic downturn that started in 2008 and the resulting drastic decline in sales tax revenues caused a projected shortfall in the transit division's operating funds of about $1.2 billion for the years 2009 through 2015 compared to long-range expected revenues in the financial plan.
2. Following recommendations from the King County auditor and commencing in 2009, the transit division has undertaken a series of significant actions to address the revenue shortfall, including increasing system-wide operating efficiencies, using one-time reserve funds, eliminating staff positions, reducing capital programs, raising fares, negotiating labor savings with employees, eliminating many lower-performing bus routes and reinvesting service hours in higher-performing routes and generating new revenue, resulting in $798 million in combined cost savings and revenue enhancements, with a net annual, ongoing positive impact to the division's budget of approximately $148 million. Although the worst of the Great Recession has passed and sales tax revenue is currently increasing, being $31 million above projections for 2014 and $31 million above projections in 2015, the economy has not recovered enough to generate the sustained sales tax revenues needed to operate the system as it is currently sized and structured.
3. To close the annual budget gap, Ordinance 17848 and ___ adopted service reductions for September 2014 and February 2015 totaling 320,000 annual hours, with an additional 21,000 annual hours res...

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