Good afternoon.
Hi, everybody.
I'm Angela Brady.
I'm the acting director of the Seattle
Department of Transportation.
Welcome, everyone.
We're here today to talk about
the Seattle Transit Measure.
Thank you all for coming as the City of Seattle works together
toward renewing our Seattle Transit measure by
working with City Council.
And I want to start by introducing Mayor Katie
Wilson to share her vision for this measure
and for growing transit.
Welcome Mayor.
Okay.
Thank you, Acting Director Brady.
Very excited to be here.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Thank you all for joining us.
Today is an exciting day for Seattle because we are taking
an important step toward renewing and expanding one
of the most effective tools we have to improve our
transit service, make our city more affordable
and build the kind of world class transit system
that Seattle deserves.
Today, I am transmitting legislation to the
Seattle City Council Council to renew the
Seattle Transit measure and put it before Seattle
voters this November.
I want to thank Council President Hollingsworth,
Transportation Committee Chair Saka, and all
the members of the City Council.
I look forward to working closely with them in
the coming weeks as they review this proposal,
ask questions, and help shape our path forward.
I also want to thank our partners at King County
Metro, the Seattle Department of Transportation,
the City Budget Office, and all of the staff in my office who
have worked through the details to build a proposal that
is ambitious, responsible, and focused on the
people who need transit the most.
And I want to especially recognize the riders,
the advocates, the community organizations,
labor partners, and neighborhood leaders who have fought for
years to make transit better, more reliable, more affordable,
and more accessible in Seattle.
I want to thank the Seattle Transit Advisory Board, the
Transit Equity Work Group, ATU 587, which represents
our hardworking operators and mechanics, Transportation
Transportation Choices Coalition, the Transit
Riders Union, and dozens of other stakeholders
who we have worked closely with in crafting this measure.
This measure exists because people organized,
spoke up, showed up, and kept insisting that
transit is essential to a fair and affordable city.
That is personal for me.
As you probably know, before I was mayor, I helped to
found the Transit Riders Union because riders needed a
stronger voice in the decisions that shape our daily lives.
We fought for better service, lower fares, and
a transit system that works not only for traditional
commuters, but for the workers, students, seniors,
parents, and neighbors whose lives depend
on transit every day.
That is the history behind today's proposal, and it's
why this moment matters.
For many people in this city, transit is not a backup plan.
It is how they get to work, how they get to school,
to childcare, to medical appointments, to the grocery
store, and back home again.
It is the nurse heading to Harborview for an early shift,
the server getting home from the junction after last call,
the student taking the bus to Ballard High School,
the parent on Beacon Hill headed to daycare and
work with child in tow, the senior in the Chinatown
International District getting to an appointment independently,
and the airport worker in Rainier Beach connecting
to the light rail.
These are the trips that make our city work.
And when transit is frequent, reliable, and affordable,
it does more than move people from one place to another.
It gives people freedom.
It gives families choices.
It helps workers reach opportunity.
And it helps students to build their future.
It helps seniors stay independent.
And it helps more people stay in the city they love.
That is why better transit is also an
affordability strategy.
Transportation is one of the biggest costs in a
household budget.
And most of that cost comes from owning a car.
Gas, insurance, repairs, parking, monthly payments, and
maintenance all add up fast.
So when we make our transit system better, we make it
possible for more households to live car-free or car-light.
And that could put hundreds or thousands of dollars
back into a family's budget.
That is real affordability.
And we also need to be honest.
A sales tax is a far from perfect tool.
It is not the funding system that I would
design from scratch.
But under state law, cities are limited in how we
fund our transportation benefit districts.
And if we do not use the tools available to us now,
the result is less transit service and fewer free passes.
That would hurt the people who rely on transit the most.
So this proposal uses the tools we have and directs the
benefits where they matter most.
more service for everyone, more access, and more
support for the people who depend on public transit.
This is how we build the transit-rich city that
Seattle has been working towards for generations,
a city where buses are frequent enough that
people can count on them, a city where light rail, buses,
streetcars, walking, biking, and rolling work together
as one connected system, a city where transit connects
people to opportunity, strengthens our neighborhoods,
supports our economy, and makes daily life a little easier.
And most of all, a city where owning a car is a
choice, not a requirement.
That is what a world-class transit looks like, and that
is what Seattle deserves.
Today is a milestone, and it's also a beginning.
I am excited to send this proposal to the
City Council today, and I look forward to working
with Council President Hollingsworth, Chair Saka,
and the full council to move it forward.
And ultimately, I look forward to giving Seattle voters
the opportunity this November to decide whether we continue
building the transit system our city needs for the next decade.
Thank you.
I'm back.
I want to thank Mayor Wilson for her leadership and our partners
at King County Metro for their continued collaboration on
the Seattle Transit Measure.
I also want to recognize SDOT staff, City Budget Office,
and the Mayor's Office staff who worked together
to develop this proposal.
I'd like to thank a few members of my team.
They're standing right over here.
Thank you so much, Jen, Mally Crawford, Anna Trevino, Candida,
Lorenzana, Megan Hoyt, Matt Yarrow, Carolyn Birkenfeld,
Kyle Butler, and Lilia Schicu.
Okay, let's try it again.
So thank you so much, you guys, for all of
your hard work on this.
A measure like this takes careful professional work.
It requires strong data, sound financial planning, close
coordination with our partners, and a clear understanding
of how people actually move around Seattle every day.
At SDOT, our role is to help turn these investments into
real service, real access, and real improvements for the
people who rely on transit.
At SDOT, that means administering these
funds responsibly.
It means working with Metro on transit service priorities.
It means making sure that free ORCA passes reach the people
they are intended to serve.
It means investing in practical street improvements
that help buses move more safely and reliably.
and it means tracking results so that we can continue
to improve over time.
Today's proposal is for a 0.3% sales tax over ten years.
This will raise $138 million per year on average over
the life of the measure.
The Seattle transit measure has been one of the city's
most important tools for strengthening transit.
It helps us buy additional Metro service like extra
trips coming to the route 8 Later this year to
make bus service more frequent seven days a week
It also supports Seattle streetcar operations
Provides free ORCA passes to people who need them and make
targeted improvements at the places where buses get delayed
This renewal proposal builds on that foundation.
It would fund 280,000 metro bus trips each and
every year.
That's a hundred thousand more trips than today.
That means more service at the times when people
need it, not just during the traditional commute
hours. It means better midday, evening, overnight,
and weekend service.
That matters because Seattle
Seattle is not a 9 to 5 city.
People are traveling to jobs, schools, medical
appointments, childcare, grocery stores, community
events and family responsibilities during
all times of the day.
A strong transit system has to work for all of those trips.
This proposal more than doubles the number of free transit
passes that we give out.
It will fund 22,000 free ORCA cards for people who participate
in Seattle Housing Authority's rental assistance programs,
low-income Seattle preschool families,
and the Seattle Promise Scholars.
This is a practical affordability investment.
When people have reliable transit and a pass
in their pocket, they have more freedom to
get where they need to go without the cost
of owning, maintaining, fueling, and parking
your car that is central to Seattle's transportation
vision we are building a city where car ownership
is a choice not a requirement that means better bus service
better connections to light rail better access to job
opportunities and for SDOT that is this is also
about good stewardship
Seattle voters have consistently supported the Seattle
transit measure over the years because they have seen
the city use these funds carefully and effectively.
We are focused on making investments where they
can make the biggest difference, especially in
neighborhoods where people rely on transit the most
and in places where Seattle is planning for an increase
in homes and jobs.
I want to also recognize that
transit service is only as strong as the streets it runs
That is why SDOT's work on transit priority, bus
stop improvements, signal upgrades, and targeted capital
projects are so, so important.
These are practical, behind-the-scenes improvements,
but for riders, they can mean a bus that comes more
often, a connection that is safer, a trip that feels more
reliable, or a commute that no longer requires a car.
This is all what's so exciting about the mayor's proposal
today. Yes, it's ambitious, but it is also very grounded.
It is about more trips, better service, broader access,
and the day-to-day details that make transit work.
I'm proud of the SDOT team and our metro partners for the
professionalism and the care that went into this proposal.
You all have been working on this for a long, long time.
And I'm grateful for the opportunity to deliver to
deliver a transit system that supports a more
affordable, connected and accessible Seattle.
Thank you so much.
And now I'd like to introduce our next speakers.
City depends on community members and volunteers
to serve on our numerous advisory boards, and
I'm really happy to
introduce Ashwin and Zach.
Why don't you come on up?
Thank you.
Thank you, Director Brady.
Hi, everybody.
I'm Ashton Humble.
I'm one of the co-chairs of the Transit Advisory Board.
Hi, everybody.
My name is Zach.
I'm also one of the co-chairs on the Transit Advisory Board.
And TAB for short, because that's kind of what
I wrote in my speech.
So we are a volunteer board made up of transit riders like us
that serves as the public oversight committee
over the use of Seattle transit measure funds.
As we all know, in 2020, Seattle voters approved the STM
with overwhelming support, 80% of the vote,
hoping to expand the largest service
tens of thousands of people rely on every single day.
And over the lifetime of the current STM measure, the
TAB has received detailed reports and examined
closely how every dollar of the STM has been spent.
In our estimation, the measure has delivered on
these promises to voters.
This is a measure that has kept essential services afloat
amidst the pandemic and a severe economic downturn.
the STM was needed and it delivered.
It has made tangible, immediate
differences in people's daily lives, but it's not enough
just to attempt to preserve service.
We need to expand it.
With this in mind, we are thrilled with the
mayor's renewal proposal, and we wholeheartedly
endorse this proposal which is focused on the
reason the original STM passed with such historic
member numbers simply put it makes transit in
this city better better frequency better reliability
better access better options as the oversight board for these
funds our highest priority is ensuring that the money
people are putting into this measure aligns with that intent
tent and is put to their benefit, we want to see
immediate meaningful returns.
This renewal is an opportunity to deliver that
immediate impact.
A bus that runs on the weekend
when it didn't before, that maintains its
frequency after commuting hours, a subsidized
ORCA card putting money back in the pocket of those who
need it most and allowing them to get where they need to go.
These are the returns that we want to see and
this is the service that Seattleites deserve.
These plans that we have, the Seattle Transportation Plan, the
Frequent Transit Network, these don't have to be just words,
just aspirations or things that never make it off the paper.
These are things that we can fulfill, these are
things that we can build, and we can do so quickly.
We have the opportunity to do so now and build a city
that is sustainable and that everyone can afford to
navigate, and we believe that this proposal will do that.
Thank you so much to the Mayor's office and
SDOT for proposing it.
I'd now like to introduce Paul Neal, the financial secretary of
the Amalgamated Transit Union.
Good afternoon, everybody.
Am I speaking?
Okay, good.
ATU Local 587 fully supports the Seattle Transit
Measure Renewal Proposal, and we'd like to thank Mayor
Wilson for her leadership and bold vision in proposing to
double the current funding rate to meet the public's
demand for more public service and transit safety.
ATU also thanks the people of Seattle and the
Seattle City Council for their long, unwavering,
and passionate support of public transit.
Now more than ever, there is a critical need to
expand public transit.
The rising price of gas and the continuing population growth
in Seattle of almost 1,000 people per month is placing
more demands on our public transportation system.
This investment is critical to the people of Seattle being
able to exercise their right to transportation, whether it be
to get to work, school, medical services, the grocery store,
or the regional rail network.
The increasing density of the city needs a robust
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM.
This levy will fund the Seattle streetcar which is absolutely
Essential to the functioning of the high density South
Lake Union and First Hill neighborhoods as
WELL AS PROVIDE ADDITIONAL TRIPS PER YEAR.
This funding will also be used to pay for targeted construction
PROJECTS TO REDUCE TRANSIT delays at pinch points and
build other improvements around bus stops.
ATU urges the Seattle City Council and the
people of Seattle to support the renewal and
expansion of the Seattle Transit Measure.
I'd like to introduce Katie from the Transportation
Choices Coalition.
Katie Ricciuto: Good afternoon, everybody.
For those of you who don't know, June is Ride Transit Month.
So happy Ride Transit Month.
Katie Ricciuto: What a perfect way to kick it off.
My name is Katie Ricciuto.
I'm the policy director for Transportation
Choices Coalition.
For over 30 years, TCC has been organizing, advocating
for, and helping fund transit across Seattle
because we believe how a city moves says a
lot about its values.
I'm going to tell you a little bit about how I've moved
around the city recently.
This past weekend, I took the bus to the light rail
to get to the airport.
This morning I took the RapidRide G to get to work, but
every once in a while I'll take the route 2 if it's faster.
Maybe I'll take route 3 or 4 home.
And after this, I am taking RapidRide E up
to an event that TCC is holding on Aurora Avenue.
And when I went to a Mariners game a few weeks
back, I took the streetcar.
If you had told me as a kid I would be standing
up here nerding out on my transit commutes,
I would not have believed you.
Because we didn't have great transit where I grew up.
So I think Seattle's values are pretty clear.
We love investing in transit.
In 2020, voters passed the Seattle transit measure because
they wanted more bus service.
In 2024, they passed the transportation levy to fund
better transit stops and safer walks to transit.
They've passed funding for light rail more than once.
Transportation Choices Coalition has been proud
to help lead the campaigns to fund those efforts,
and we are here today because Seattle is about to do it again.
For a lot of people in this city, transit isn't optional.
It's an essential part of daily life.
As the mayor said, owning a car in Washington state costs a lot,
over $12,000 a year on average.
So when we talk about affordability in this
city, we have to talk about transportation,
because I think one of the most progressive things we can do is
make it easier to live without a car or with one less car.
Every time Seattle voters have been asked whether
they want to invest in that, they have said yes.
That shows that Seattleites believe reliable transit should
be available to everyone.
I think the details of the Seattle transit measure
renewal speak for themselves.
It will fund more bus service at all times of the day, better
connections to light rail, and expand fare subsidies
for tens of thousands of low-income individuals.
This measure will help Seattle residents get to the doctor, to
the grocery store, to school, to recreation, and to jobs.
Transportation Choices Coalition is excited about this
proposal from Mayor Wilson.
Thank you for your leadership and commitment to transit
on behalf of the riders that this measure will serve.
We helped get the last measure passed, and we're excited to
help get this one passed, too.
Thank you.
That concludes our afternoon discussion.
Thank you very much.
The Press: There seems to be -- there's kind of a
contradiction between affordability and increasing
the sales taxes with double it.
Can you speak to why you're proposing such a large
sales tax increase?
And maybe speak to the question of, you know, why
there aren't other alternatives?
Ms. Yeah, so our transportation benefit district is enabled
by state law, and so we're given very specific funding
sources, the main one being being sales tax.
And yeah, I mean, I think we are in a moment where
people are having a lot of trouble affording
to live in this city.
And I think this is really a question of what we choose to
do with the investments that we make and the tax
revenue that we raise.
So when we're investing in public transit,
making it possible for people to live car-free
or car light when we're investing in affordable
fares those are really direct supports that are
creating affordability for the people in our
communities that need it most and it's unfortunate
that we don't have more progressive options for
funding our transit system but that's something
something that we can continue to work at at the state level.
In addition to that, at what point did you
decide to double it?
You mean like what date?
In the process of looking at the renewal, at what point did
you guys decide on doubling?
Well one thing I think is important to point out
is that we're also in a moment where everything
is getting more expensive.
So, when we talk about even though we are doubling the
size of the measure, that's not unfortunately actually getting
us doubled transit service.
So, just to maintain the level of transit service that we
have been providing was going to require a larger measure
anyway because, you know, the cost of everything is going
up all across the board for, you know, for households, for
businesses, for government.
And I don't remember the exact point at which kind of we would
be maintaining the level of service, but we decided that
Increasing the size of the measure to be able to actually
expand transit service was going to be really important
Especially as we are continuing to build out our regional
light rail system, right?
And we just opened up the cross like connection
and Judkins Park Station And so really just making sure
that we are taking advantage of that connectivity seemed
really important in this moment So we decided to go up
to point three percent Which is kind of what our
funding authority is through the transportation benefit district
Mayor Wilson, are you concerned about the County Council
enacting additional sales tax on top of this that could
actually divert dollars from the City of Seattle to other
jurisdictions? So you're talking about the .1%
countywide sales tax proposal that the King County Council
may pass for mostly for roads in unincorporated county, but
there's a discussion about some some of that revenue
going back to cities.
I mean, yeah, obviously I would like,
if some of that money is going back directly to cities,
Seattle taxpayers are paying that money,
and I would like to see Seattle get our fair share
of that money, we have a lot of needs here.
- Years ago, when this city tax originated,
there was a car tab fee involved,
I think it was 40 or $60.
How come you're not seeing that, or that nobody was
interested in putting that forth this time around?
So there is an up to there is a $50 car tab
fee that in principle could also be put on the
ballot alongside this the sales tax measure.
I think we've looked at the way that previous
measures have panned out and felt that going
in that direction
just to be blunt, like
would be a lot more controversial in
terms of potential.
So we've had the last couple of Seattle Transportation
Benefit District measures have gone through
with very little organized opposition.
Everyone wants transit, everyone was like,
okay, this is a reasonable way to pay for it.
I think we've seen car tab measures
rouse more organized opposition, and I think we wanted
to stick with something that we were really
confident Seattle voters we're going to be able
to enthusiastically get on board with.
Metro's ridership is two-thirds to three-quarters
what it was pre-pandemic, and they reported last year
that there were no routes that required more investment
to relieve overcrowding, though there were a
lot of neighborhoods that were underserved for
frequency or time of day.
How do you, when there is an overcrowding
and there is a significant amount,
over $50 million already collected,
how or why is Seattle short on bus service?
Well, I think as you just mentioned,
there are many areas that are underserved
for frequency and time of day, so we're going to be making
our investments strategically to address those issues.
And I'll also say that, you know,
ridership continues to climb back up.
So we are looking forward to a future where ridership is
surpassing and continuing to grow past pre-pandemic levels.
I'm very confident that that is the future that we are moving
toward, especially as, again, we are continuing to build out our
light rail system and making other investments in transit
reliability, like the investments that we're making in
in transit priority and dedicated bus lanes.
So I think we are looking forward to a future
where more people are riding transit, especially
as our region keeps growing.
And I also think it's really important to frame this not
-- this is not just something that we are doing for
transit riders, right?
As people continue to move to our region, we have to make
it possible for more people to get around without a car
because we simply don't have the space to keep adding more cars
and more parking to our roads indefinitely so
this is really something that is good for everyone
whether or not you own a car whether or not you
have to drive right this is really about giving
people those options and making sure that we are using our road
space as efficiently as possible to move people to where
they need to go can you speak to your vision for
the future of the seattle streetcar the current
two-line system requires i think 13.4 million this
year in subsidy which pretty much outweighs a lot of
the transit investments that are provided in metro so you
know we're going to be monitoring as i mean
i think the first hill line is like performing
extremely well i think the south lake union line
you know has a little bit more challenges in terms
of ridership although there was a big bump in ridership recently
right so it's like trending I think in a good direction.
So we're gonna be monitoring kind of how ridership
on that line goes, especially as we're making other,
you know, changes to our investments in
our transit system.
So yeah, we'll just see.
I mean, I think, I mean, obviously if
we had all the money in the world, we'd love to
build that Center City Connector and just really like get our
streetcar system connected.
But we're gonna be kind of monitoring and trying
to make sure that we're using these dollars
in the most effective way possible.
- All right, thanks everybody.
If you have any follow-ups, please come find me.
Actually, just one quick question on affordability.
You mentioned ORCA.
ORCA is...
Yeah, so is there going to be an expansion of ORCA Lift,
and will that include an expansion to,
you know, buy income?
Because right now it's only for very low-income folks.
Okay, so the city doesn't actually, like, run
the ORCA Lift program, so that's a metro program.
The specific investment that we're making with these dollars
is partnering with the Seattle Housing Authority
to basically offer free annual passes
to residents in affordable housing buildings.
This is a program that the city has been funding,
but this actually represents a very significant
expansion of that, not just in the dollars that
we are putting into this, but we've also worked with Metro
to basically agree to a different model
where previously we were actually paying full fare
for those rides, but now we're going to be paying
at the ORCA Lift rate, which is a dollar ride.
So the money that we are using on this program is actually
going to go a lot further and be able to serve a lot more
people than it was previously.
So I don't know if I do have the numbers for how many
people this is going to serve now versus when it did before.
Up to 22,000.
And before, how many were?
So we're going from 10,000 to 22,000 without doubling
the money, basically.
So that's that.
And I think this is just a really, really exciting thing.
I'll just say, like, through my previous organizing with the
Transit Riders Union, right, and also my personal
experience, the difference between having that
unlimited pass in your pocket versus having to think about
where you're going to come up with the money every time
you ride transit is just, it just represents
freedom through mobility.
And so to be able to offer that to 22,000 people in our
community is really remarkable.