After Public Outcry Link Transit Board Shelves Tax Repeal Talk
After nearly 90 minutes of public comments the board voted unanimously to table the topic of repeal until June 2026, or Link accomplishes its "Vision 2020"
Before Rock Island Mayor Randy Agnew walked onto the elevator to get to the Link Transit board room on the third floor of Columbia Station in Wenatchee yesterday, he had to start defending his support of a sales tax repeal measure that would mean a decrease in Link’s budget to the tune of millions.
“I hope we can count on your support to keep this repeal measure off the ballot,” Russ Speidel said to Agnew.
Speidel is a local attorney and a major supporter of public transit. He was the co-chair of the citizen’s campaign committee to get the sales tax measure passed in 2019. Agnew is a Link Transit board member. The board is made of elected officials from the communities Link serves and are not directly elected.
“Well I don’t see it like a lot of folks like you do,” Agnew said. “Link has plenty of money to operate. We just need to use what we have.”
The two men disagree about the merits of a ballot measure passed by voters in 2019 that implemented a sales tax to fund Link’s “Vision 2020” expansion plan. Under that plan, starting in 2020, six-tenths of taxable income spent in Chelan and Douglas counties started going to Link. Things like groceries and medicine are not included in that tax. Simply put, of the goods taxed 60 cents of every $1000 or $6 of every $10,000 spent by consumers in the region goes to Link. On Jan. 1, 2024 an additional six-tenths started going to Link, and to reverse that the Link board would have to put another measure on the ballot this November and voters would have to vote to repeal it.
The board has discussed the idea in the past and Agnew, as well as Douglas County Commissioner Kyle Steinberg, have been vocal critics of Link and proponents of taking the sales tax increase back to the people. They say Link has not met the goals it set out in the Vision 2020 plan, and therefore has not kept up its side of the deal with the public. Their critics say they want “a do-over” because the vote didn’t go the way they wanted.
Many of those critics were waiting on the third floor as Agnew and Speidel stepped out of the elevator, and for the next hour and 20 minutes the board heard from them.
“What the hell are you thinking?!” Ken Johanessen said. “Link is now hitting it's stride. We have record boardings, new drivers, a great fleet of electric buses, higher ridership, expanded service… Why do you want to take that away?”
Agnew and Steinburg whispered to each other, looked at a laptop together and generally seemed to try to ignore folks making public comments. That made Robert Kirk from Cashmere angry, and he and the woman sitting next to him muttered about their lack of manners.
When it was Kirk’s time to make a statement he said he didn’t vote in favor of the sales tax back in 2019, but that the board needs to listen to the people.
“I was against it. But at the end of the day I didn’t win,” he said. “Big deal.”
He said the members who were for repealing the measure now should be “ashamed” of themselves. You can watch his short remarks here.
The CEOs of the two largest medical providers in the region, Confluence Health and Columbia Valley Community Heath, both wrote letters urging the board not to put a repeal measure on the ballot and stating the need for quality public transit not just for their patients but also their providers.
“If this tax were repealed, this reliable access would be endangered, making it more difficult for our staff to reach work and our patients to access their care,” Confluence CEO Dr. Andrew Jones wrote. “As fellow partners in serving all the residents of our community, including those for whom Link Transit is a critical lifeline, we urge you to reject the effort to repeal this voter-approved tax and instead use these funds, along with state and federal matching funds, to improve access to not only Confluence Health facilities, but all the critical areas in our community.”
Another local member of the medical field, Dr. Tricia Self, wrote a letter imploring the board to not entertain the topic of repeal. She pointed to how important public transit is to people on the streets who sometimes freeze and suffer frostbite in the winter months.
“During a cold snap this winter I watched several of our unhoused community get on the bus to have a warm place to be,” she wrote. “As a wound care provider who has treated several patients for frostbite, I am certain that the bus prevented considerable frostbite and loss of limb for these unhoused riders.”
Beth Stipe, the executive director of the Community Foundation of North Central Washington, also spoke. She said she was “offended” that some on the board were trying to take away her vote. She also said she believed the idea of repeal is fiscally irresponsible in large part because a good public transit supports employers by giving employees a reliable way to get to work.
“The reason I voted for this tax was jobs, jobs, jobs,” she said. “We work so hard to bring employers and to provide them with workers to keep their businesses running. And if we can’t provide a workforce that is going to show up on time and is there for them we’re going to lose employers.”
You can watch her public comment here:
By the time everyone had weighed in more than 20 folks spoke in person and board clerk Selina Danko had read into the record 33 letters. All but one were against the idea of putting a repeal measure on the November ballot.
“I guess I didn’t get the talking points everyone else got,” Steinburg said.
After a brief discussion, Chelan County Commissioner Kevin Overbay made a motion that they keep the tax until June 2026 or until Link completes the Vision 2020 plan.
Every member of the board voted in favor – even Agnew and Steinburg.
You can watch the entire meeting on Link’s YouTube channel here.
So pleased you helped get the word out about the meeting. The support was overwhelming. Thank God sane minds prevailed. Good grief, not only do people have to work to get the vote passed, then you have to work to keep idiots from repealing it.
Thank you for covering this important public meeting. I was especially moved to see my fellow citizens speaking so eloquently and passionately against repealing the voter-approved tax.