Drafter
Clerk 11/04/2010
Title
A MOTION concerning the recommendations of the regional task force on King County's transit system.
Body
WHEREAS, King County department of transportation transit division carried one hundred twelve million passengers in 2009 on the fastest-growing transit system in the United States of America, and
WHEREAS, the Puget Sound Regional Council-adopted Vision 2040 regional growth strategy projects King County's population to grow by forty-two percent and jobs to grow by fifty-seven percent over the next thirty years, and
WHEREAS, the Puget Sound Regional Council-adopted Transportation 2040 plan anticipates growth in transit ridership greater than seventy four percent over current levels, and
WHEREAS, the great recession that began in 2008 creates a cumulative shortfall for the King County transit system of 1.176 billion dollars by 2015, requiring the equivalent of a twenty two percent reduction in county transit services, and
WHEREAS, the King County council is engaged in a multiyear process to create a more sustainable transit system, including conducting a comprehensive financial and performance audit of the transit division and its operations, which led to implementing operational and scheduling efficiencies; reducing no-essential services; increasing fares to address a ninety-million-dollar shortfall in 2009 and a two-hundred-million-dollar shortfall in the 2010-2011 biennium, and
WHEREAS, even with the cost reductions and efficiencies of previous years, the King County transit division is anticipated to face annual deficits of at least sixty million for the 2012-2013 biennium, which are planned to be addressed through the reduction of six hundred thousand hours of transit service, and
WHEREAS, the King County council appointed a twenty-eight-member regional transit task force to recommend a new policy framework to help shape the policies associated with delivering service throughout the King County transit system, and
WH...

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