Eight Legislators from the Seattle Area Announce Support for Seattle-only Metro Funding Initiative

Anna Minard

Ben Schiendelman of Keep Seattle Moving, filing the group's initiative on April 25.

As Anna Minard reports in the current Stranger, a group of Seattle transit advocates have an idea for fighting back against Metro service cuts.

In her piece, Anna explains why the most recent attempt at saving Metro, Prop 1, went down hard in King County—and how we're all being used as pawns in an Olympia power game on this one. Then Anna moves on to the Seattle transit advocates' idea, which people are calling Plan C. This plan recognizes that while Prop 1 lost county-wide, the citizens of Seattle...

...passed Prop 1 by a mile. The election won't be certified for another week, but early results show it passing by as high as 78 percent in some [Seattle] neighborhoods. Overall, it enjoyed a more than 20-point lead in Seattle proper, a number that will almost certainly rise by the time all late ballots are counted. So it's time to call Olympia's stupid bluff and move on to Plan C: a Seattle-only tax to fund Seattle-only transit. Screw the state's hostage-taking tactics.

Now eight state legislators are on board with this idea:

Rep. Cindy Ryu (32nd LD), Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, (34th LD), Rep. Eileen Cody (34th LD), Rep. Gael Tarleton (36th LD), Sen. Adam Kline (37th LD), Rep. Eric Pettigrew (37th LD), Rep. Jessyn Farrell (46th LD), and Rep. Gerry Pollet (46th LD).

Notably absent from the list, off the top of my head: Sen. Jamie Pedersen (43rd LD) and Rep. Reuven Carlyle (36th LD). I'm sure there are other notable absences.

While we more fully sort out who's on board and who's not on board with this initiative, a question: