Sims wants to boost sales tax to add buses

King County Executive Ron Sims is proposing a sales-tax increase for the November ballot in hopes of buying so many buses that riders won't even need a schedule.

The plan, nicknamed "Transit Now," promises Metro Transit runs between downtown Seattle and West Seattle, Ballard and Aurora Avenue North every 10 minutes, with equally frequent trips from Bellevue to Redmond and along Pacific Highway South.

Sims' office calls it the largest expansion of service in two decades.

If county voters pass the measure, Metro's share of sales taxes, currently 80 cents on every $100 in purchases, will increase to 90 cents per $100.

That's on top of existing taxes for Sound Transit and state highways. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels intends to put a separate tax for citywide transportation to voters this fall; he hasn't announced which projects to include. And a multibillion-dollar regional transportation package for Snohomish, King and Pierce counties could reach the ballot next year.

Kevin Desmond, general manager of Metro, said fuel prices and other costs of running a transit system will rise faster than what current taxes can bring in. At the same time, a quarter-million new jobs are expected in the county during the next decade.

"We're not even coming close to growing our system enough to keep up with our [employment] growth," he told The Seattle Times editorial board Monday.

Desmond said the tax would raise $50 million in the first year, and some of that would pay for more driver hours almost immediately, using the existing fleet. Over two years, Metro would begin to add 190 buses, half of them hybrid gas-electric models.

"Just like having your car available any time you need it, the bus service also needs to be there," he said.

He touted a new bus rapid-transit service for West Seattle, which could lose its most direct route to downtown someday while the nearby Alaskan Way Viaduct is replaced.

But a crucial new bus ramp above South Spokane Street, which is needed to move riders directly from the West Seattle Bridge into the Sodo busway, isn't funded in Metro's plan. So unless the city finds more money, West Seattle still wouldn't get full "bus rapid-transit" in its own lanes and riders would be stuck in regular traffic.

Patrice Gillespie-Smith, chief of staff for the Seattle Department of Transportation, said possibilities include a city tax, federal grants or state aid to reduce traffic problems on the viaduct, which links to the West Seattle Bridge.

Other Metro proposals under the tax plan include:

• More trips to booming suburbs such as Sammamish, Kent and Covington.

• Route expansions in the neighborhoods surrounding Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

• Trips every 15 minutes between business districts on the Eastside.

• Feeder buses in Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley to reach the Sound Transit light-rail stations there, which open in 2009.

• More east-west trips among Queen Anne, South Lake Union and Capitol Hill.

• More Access vehicles for the disabled.

• Electronic message boards at the busiest stops, to announce when the next bus is coming.

Issaquah Mayor Ava Frisinger, Kirkland Mayor Mary-Alyce Burleigh and County Council member Julia Patterson, D-SeaTac, are expected to join Sims in formally announcing the plan today, a Sims spokeswoman said.

The plan requires approval by the Metropolitan King County Council to reach the ballot. Sims, a Democrat, said he's sure a majority will agree, regardless of political party, since the transit improvements would reach into every council member's district.

County Councilman Larry Gossett, a Democrat representing southeast Seattle and the University District, said that though the plan doesn't seem to bring huge gains for his district, it benefits working-class people across the county, so he hopes voters will support it.

Patterson favors more transit, but she won't commit to a particular ballot measure until after public hearings and surveys, said Jon Scholes, her chief of staff. "We've made an investment in high-occupancy- vehicle lanes, but in our opinion, there aren't enough buses to go in them," he said.

The last time voters raised taxes for Metro Transit was in fall 2000, to replace funds legislators removed because of Tim Eyman's Initiative 695 to roll back a statewide car-tab tax.

When all sales taxes are combined, people in the county's urban areas now pay $8.80 on most purchases of $100, which would rise to $8.90 if the plan were to pass.

Though a sales tax hits poorer people harder than the rich, Gossett said, he can agree to the increase, because the county lacks other taxing options.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com.