The small numbers are really pretty big in STA's Prop 1

By

Staff Reporter

It is seemingly such a miniscule ask from the Spokane Transit Authority on the November ballot for their Proposition 1.

A yes vote will authorize a mere two-tenths of 1 percent of the sales tax to improve their service to Spokane County.

But there’s another small number that voters rarely, if ever, see.

Unless they subscribe to the Spokane Journal of Business and receive that publication’s yearly economic fact book, or spend endless hours diving into census data, they would never discover that less than 3 percent of commuters ride STA.

That same report, the last five years of which I have it in my dusty files, will tell you the number has not changed significantly, nor has the 5.3 percent of those who work from home, or the nearly 80 percent who use a vehicle to go to and fro.

So if you have yet to fill in that circle on the ballot, I’m certainly going to ruffle feathers, receive cold shoulders — and maybe, just maybe even elicit letters — by suggesting you take a look at much bigger numbers and ask a few questions.

Now before the stones get hurled, I must say I am all for public transit. I know it is an important means for many who either choose, or cannot afford a personal automobile to get where they need to go. I, too, was once dependent on the old City Lines buses that predated the formation of STA to get to and from school before I was old enough to drive.

But back to those bigger numbers.

Does an organization whose budget already hovers in the $70 million range need to draw closer to $100 million, yet serve just a fraction of the population?

A yes vote will provide them another $20 million a year with 0.1 coming in 2017 and another 0.1 in 2018. It’s just $2 per month and $24 per year the literature says.

As I noted in an April 2015 piece that occupied this space and questioned STA’s last request, the budgets of the Spokane Police Department, $53 million, their fire department $35 million and several-year-old numbers peg the Spokane Sheriff’s Office budget in the $40 million range.

From a law enforcement perspective, we never hear the end of tales of property crime that plague us. And what’s higher on your list of priorities: whether there’s bus service after 11 p.m. on weekends or that when you dial 911 for a medical emergency, paramedics get to you before the coroner?

While STA currently receives 0.60 percent of sales tax (Spokane County numbers as of Oct. 1, 2008) consider these areas that so much more of Spokane County might NEED, or be affected by and what they derive from the sales tax pie: Criminal justice — 0.10 percent. Public safety — 0.10 percent. Emergency communications — 0.10 percent.

Mental health — 0.10 percent.

And while true that money for roads comes from different funding, one cannot help but look at their terrible condition — feel them too — and wonder, as do I, do I need to increase the budget for buses when my ball joints take a beating every day?

Those of us who drive State Route 904 on a daily basis and land behind the occasional slowpoke who does not see the 55 mile-per-hour signs, or are tailgated by someone wanting to go 65, may wonder why there’s no state money to widen the highway?

Several million state dollars, and portions of Prop 1 funds, will go to build a transit center at the SR-902 interchange to speed travel to and from Cheney, Airway Heights, Medical Lake and Spokane.

However, I plugged my commute needs into the STA app. If approved, the measure will still likely not shave any of the two hour, 7 minute one-way commute — coupled with about a 2.5 mile walk — for me to get from my door at home to work via transit should I choose that.

The question I’m glad I’m not faced with is the one those who reside in Puget Sound must ponder. They have a REAL dollar decision in the $59 billion —that’s B as in billion — request on the ballot for the proposed expansion of their light rail system.

It certainly makes Prop 1 chump change, but still not worth my vote to provide it.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.