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| Pierce Transit Shuttle rider - from RestoreTransitNow |
The News Tribune's Editorial Board saw the light today in its Sunday editorial endorsing Pierce Transit Proposition 1. Here are some snippets from the editorial (emphasis mine). You can read it in-full at - The News Tribune - Yes on Prop 1.
What I want to commend the Editorial Board for putting into words is the notion that transit cuts aren't just about numbers and lines on a map, transit cuts affect people and the kind of community that we aspire to be.
Here the Editorial Board indicates that Pierce Transit has met their bar for cost containment. Restructured service, reduced subsidies for outlying service, fare increases, cuts to management and capital projects, and a new labor agreement all helped to make this happen.
Pierce Transit has already cut its bus and paratransit runs by roughly 40 percent. Without additional revenue, it expects to cut what remains by a crippling 53 percent. ...
Those aren’t just numbers on a page – they are human beings who depend on the bus to get to jobs, stores, school and doctor appointments. ...
Many don’t have any reliable alternative. The egency’s surveys indicate that 56 percent of its riders have household incomes of less than $20,000; they include the poorest of the poor. Close to half – 45 percent – do not have working vehicles.
Many ... depend on specially equipped paratransit vans. ...when a [bus] route disappears, so do the vans.
...riders use the buses to earn money, spend money or prepare themselves for jobs.
Here the Editorial Board indicates that Pierce Transit has met their bar for cost containment. Restructured service, reduced subsidies for outlying service, fare increases, cuts to management and capital projects, and a new labor agreement all helped to make this happen.
We opposed this tax the last time it was on the ballot, in February 2011. Our concern was that Pierce Transit had been lax in controlling its costs.
Things have changed. The agency has gone to considerable lengths to wring excess out of its operations. One indicator is its new contract with the bus drivers’ union, which provides for no new salary increases. Employees will also be paying more for their generous health care benefits.There are just a few more weeks left before voters start receiving their ballots. Donate, get in touch with the campaign for doorbelling and phone banking, and like them on Facebook.