Today is a sad day for Metro Transit, as Governor Gregoire exercised her veto to shoot down part of Senate Bill 5433, depriving Metro Transit of a potential $25-$30 million-per-year funding source.

In January of this year, Gov. Gregoire pledged as part of her deep bore tunnel plan to help the county secure $120 million in new taxing authority to increase transit service.  This bill would have allowed the county to achieve just a portion of that, using the same tax mechanism, and would’ve required approval by the voters.  It would not have bridged the whole shortfall, but it still would have helped. She did not explain why the extra funding is now a bad idea.

At a time when people are riding in record numbers and Metro already faces a projected $100 million funding shortfall in 2010, this is the last thing public transit in our region needs.  According to the County, “the size of the expected funding gap makes service cuts inevitable unless a new revenue source is found.”  We should be doing everything in our power to support and encourage transit usage, and voters should be able to choose whether they want to spend their dollars to avoid losing transit.