File #: 2020-0023    Version:
Type: Ordinance Status: Passed
File created: 1/28/2020 In control: Mobility and Environment Committee
On agenda: Final action: 2/25/2020
Enactment date: 3/5/2020 Enactment #: 19058
Title: AN ORDINANCE adding an income-based fare subsidy component to the low-income transit fare program; and amending Ordinance 17757, Section 5, as amended, and K.C.C. 4A.700.490.
Sponsors: Rod Dembowski, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Joe McDermott, Claudia Balducci, Girmay Zahilay
Indexes: Fees, Metro, transit
Code sections: 4A.700.490 - .
Attachments: 1. Ordinance 19058, 2. 2020-0023 legislative review form, 3. 2020-0023 Fiscal Note, 4. 2020-0023 transmittal letter, 5. 2020-0023_AMD1_Clarification, 6. 2020-002223_RevisedSR_Income-BasedFare
Staff: Zoppi, Leah
Drafter
Clerk 02/18/2020
Title
AN ORDINANCE adding an income-based fare subsidy component to the low-income transit fare program; and amending Ordinance 17757, Section 5, as amended, and K.C.C. 4A.700.490.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. 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.
2. Ordinance 12643 authorized the sale of transit tickets to human services agencies at a discounted price to allow human services agencies to provide free or low-cost transit tickets to the people they serve and established the regional reduced fare program, which provides a reduced transit fare for people with disabilities and seniors over age sixty-five.
3. Ordinance 13480 authorized transit pass agreements with public school districts and established a no-charge child fare and a reduced-price youth fare for younger transit riders.
4. Ordinance 17757 authorized the use of region's transit fare card, the One Regional Card for All, also known as ORCA, for a low-income fare for people with household income at or below two hundred percent of the federal poverty level.
5. The 2019-2020 Biennial Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 18835, Section 109, Proviso P3, as amended by Ordinance 18930, Section 75, required the executive to develop an income-based fare program to provide no or very low cost access to transit for residents earning one hundred thirty-five percent of the federal poverty level or less and asked that the program be informed by input from an income-based fare stakeholder group, guidance from academic or private sector experts, data and market research on the transportation needs and access barriers of low-income populations and the King County Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan.
6. Ordinance 18930 changed the eligibility threshold for the income-based fare program to one hundred thirty-eight percent o...

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