Regional transit authorities are one step closer to getting the green light from Olympia to legally pick the pockets of vehicle owners. The measure under consideration would allow transit authorities to collect up to $20 per year per vehicle through annual license tab fees without voter approval. Voters could approve an additional $30 annual fee at the polls.

From the Seattlepi.com Transportation Watch blog:

A bill to help local transit financing with up to $50-a-year vehicle fees for four years was approved Monday by a state House committee. The measure may be headed to a vote in the House before the end of the current legislative session.

The amended version of House Bill 2855 would permit governing bodies of local transit agencies, like the King County Council for Metro, to increase vehicle fees in their service area by $20 annually without a vote.

And a change added at King County’s request would let the agencies add another $30 annually if voters approved.

This proposal comes after regional transit authorities enacted fare hikes at the beginning of 2010 and eliminated the paper transfer system of which many casual riders previously took advantage. In the case of Sound Transit the rush to look for additional revenue sources comes without revisiting the commitment to continued funding of a light rail system that some analysts believe will become a fiscal black hole that could threaten comparatively cost-efficient and goal-attaining bus and vanpool transit programs.

If HB 2855 moves through the legislature to become law there is little reason to think that the governing boards of Sound Transit, King County Metro, Community Transit, and Pierce Transit will resist the temptation to dip into the taxpayers’ wallets, at least for the $20 hike not requiring voter approval.

Sung Yang, King County’s government relations director, laid the groundwork for going after the entire $50 maximum allowable fee to alleviate Metro’s fiscal woes. Also from the Seattlepi.com piece:

A $20 annual vehicle fee would raise an estimated $24.2 million each year in King County, according to Sung Yang, the county’s government relations director. A $50 annual fee would raise about $71 million, he said. The county raised fares 25 cents per trip this year to help make up for the shortfall. Yang said the $20 fee originally described in the bill wasn’t enough to get King County through the financial problem at Metro.

The original bill allowed for $20 annual added fees but the $30 provision was added after Metro said $20 wouldn’t be enough to get Metro through its financial difficulties. Keeping bus service at current levels “requires (funding for) 600,000 hours more than we have in 2010 and 2011,” Yang said.

Although Yang would not go as far as saying that King County would enact the fee but did say threaten future fare increases if alternate revenue sources were not created. He added that ridership is anticipated to continue falling this year (it dropped 6 percent in 2009), a curious revelation in that it begs the question of why the transit system is desperate for new revenue at the same time it is serving less people.

HB 2855 has been passed out of the Rules committee to the floor of the House. No schedule for its second reading has been set.

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