Drafter
Clerk 10/08/2012
Title
A MOTION regarding access to public transportation mobility for low income populations; and the establishment of an advisory committee for mobility as an element of the health and human services safety net to assist in the development of new regional public transportation fare programs.
Body
WHEREAS, King County is responsible for the Metro transit system, which has a mission to provide the best possible public transportation services and improve regional mobility and quality of life in King County, and
WHEREAS, King County established "fair and just" as a countywide guiding principle within the adopted King County Strategic Plan and defined this equity and social justice program via Ordinance 16948 in order to achieve equitable opportunities for all people and communities, and
WHEREAS, King County provides public transportation fare discounts to seniors, disabled persons and youth riders, and participates in the regional reduced fare permit program with the goals of advancing the "fair and just" guiding principle, and
WHEREAS, because King County is committed to the goal of providing opportunities for all communities and individuals to realize their full potential, King County forgoes more than two million dollars per year of fare revenue through a program where community health and human services agencies purchase transit fare scrip at twenty percent of the cash transit fare value, and
WHEREAS, the United Way of King County, via its community assessment basic needs indicators, reports that requests for assistance with basic needs remains at high levels, and in many cases at the highest levels. United Way of King County also report that King County is currently experiencing its longest period of sustained, high unemployment since monthly unemployment rates began to be measured in the early 1940s, and
WHEREAS, the King County council desires to explore and develop new regional public transportation fare program concepts ...

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