File #: 2023-0367    Version: 1
Type: Ordinance Status: Passed
File created: 10/17/2023 In control: Transportation, Economy, and Environment Committee
On agenda: Final action: 11/28/2023
Enactment date: 12/6/2023 Enactment #: 19705
Title: AN ORDINANCE relating to public transportation, extending the one-dollar rate for low-income fare on buses, trolleys, transit vans, dial-a-ride vehicles, and streetcars from twelve months to twenty-four months; amending Ordinance 19532, Section 3, and establishing an expiration date.
Sponsors: Rod Dembowski
Indexes: Fees, Public Transportation
Attachments: 1. Ordinance 19705, 2. 2023-0367 transmittal letter, 3. 2023-0367 Evaluation Memo $1 LIFT Fare, 4. 2023-0367 Title VI Fare Equity Analysis-$1 LIFT, 5. 2023-0367 fiscal note, 6. 2023-0367 Legislation Review Form, 7. 2023-0367_SR_Orca-Lift-Extension
Related files: 2022-0392
Staff: Bourguignon, Mary
Drafter
Clerk 10/11/2023
title
AN ORDINANCE relating to public transportation, extending the one-dollar rate for low-income fare on buses, trolleys, transit vans, dial-a-ride vehicles, and streetcars from twelve months to twenty-four months; amending Ordinance 19532, Section 3, and establishing an expiration date.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. K.C.C 4A. 700.010 provides fares for regularly scheduled county public transportation service on buses, trolleys, transit vans, dial-a-ride vehicles, including fares for adults, children, youth, seniors and persons with disabilities and low-income riders.
2. Metro transit department's ("Metro") 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.
3. 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."
4. The King County council has worked with the King County executive and Metro to implement a number of programs to advance an income-based approach to fares and ensure that public transit is affordable and accessible to people in need.
5. The current low-income fare of $1.00 for buses, trolleys, transit vans, dial-a-ride vehicles and streetcars, was adopted on a pilot basis by Ordinance 19532. This pilot fare took effect on January 1, 2023, and expires on January 1, 2024. 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.
6. Sound Transit implemented a permanent $1.00 low-income fare on March 1, 2023, following their six-month pilot that began September 1, 2022. More than h...

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