Drafter
Clerk 09/28/2022
Title
AN ORDINANCE relating to public transportation, revising rates of low-income fare on buses, trolleys, transit vans, dial-a-ride vehicles and streetcars to $1.00 for twelve months beginning on January 1, 2023; amending Ordinance 13480, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 4A.700.010, establishing an effective date and establishing an expiration date.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. K.C.C. 4A.700.010 provides for fares for regularly scheduled county public transportation service on buses, trolleys, transit vans, dial-a-ride vehicles and streetcars, including fares for adults, children, youth, seniors and persons with disabilities and low-income riders.
2. The King County Metro Strategic Plan for Public Transportation, 2021-2031, as adopted by Ordinance 19367, includes a strategy to "Align fares with other service providers, meet revenue targets, and advance equity through Metro's income-based approach to fares."
3. The King County council has worked with the King County executive and the Metro transit department ("Metro") to implement a number of programs to make public transit more affordable and accessible to people in need.
4. The current low-income fare is $1.50 for buses, trolleys, transit vans, dial-a-ride vehicles and streetcars, $3.75 for the West Seattle water taxi route and $4.50 for the Vashon Island water taxi route. The low-income fare is available to persons who apply for and are determined to meet the eligibility threshold of two hundred percent of the federal poverty level.
5. Metro's fund management policies for the public transportation fund, as adopted by Ordinance 18321, provide that Metro will recover at least twenty-five percent and will maintain a target of recovering thirty percent of passenger related operating costs from farebox revenues for bus service.
6. Sound Transit will implement a $1.00 low-income fare for a six-month period beginning September 1, 2022. More than half of riders enrolled in ORCA LIFT...
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