ST 3 Breaks Promise to Voters

 Subarea Equity is a foundational concept promised by the Regional Transit Authority in 1996 that was an integral part of the approval of the establishment of the Sound Transit District. ST 3 breaks that promise. 

 The Eastside Transportation Association (ETA) recently published (Oct. 17, 2016) a new paper outlining a key broken promise of Sound Transit included in the proposed $54 billion ST 3 tax and spend project to be voted on in November.  Go to Sound Transit Breaks Promise to Voters for the details. 

The paper demonstrates the enormity of the proposal and how the East King Subarea would send $2.9 billion that is raised by the taxes and revenues in East King to Seattle and Snohomish County while $9.8 billion would be raised and spent here in East King, with very little transportation benefit to East King County. 

When reduced to a city level, such as Bellevue, the annual taxes raised for Sound Transit 3 dominates the total capital dollars Bellevue spends on transportation in a year by four times! 

“Note that annually Bellevue will contribute four times as much to ST3 as the city Transportation CIP budget and 17 times the levy proceeds, if approved. The annual amount contributed by Bellevue residents to other subareas is nearly the amount of the total annual Transportation CIP and four times the amount of the levy.”

 The $54 billion price tag is about 12 times the amount the state is spending on the SR 520 bridge replacement project from I-405 to I-5, and 10 times the recently expanded Panama Canal.