Link Transit Board Faction Fails to get Sales Tax Repeal Measure On November Ballot, Again
After bidding outgoing CEO Richard DeRock farewell, members debated walking away from $40 million over 16 years tied to a 2019 ballot measure passed by Chelan and Douglas County voters
After more than an hour of sometimes-heated discussion, the Link Transit board of directors voted Tuesday to postpone for nine months any discussion of putting a measure on the ballot of any upcoming elections that would allow voters to repeal a sales tax approved in 2019.
It’s the second time in four months that the topic of repealing the tax has come up ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline to put a measure on the ballot for the Nov. 2023 general election. The current sales tax rate is 0.5%, it was 0.4% until 2020 when the first 1/10 of the approved increase went into effect. The second one-tenth percent is scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2024, for a total of 6/10 of a percent collected going to Link Transit. So that means $6 of every $1000 spent by consumers in Chelan and Douglas Counties will go to Link’s budget.
The 2023 operating budget is $25,144,330, which is a large increase from four years ago. Some board members say there’s plenty of money coming in from the current point-one percent tax and the state and federal dollars that started coming in after Covid and because of the Biden administration’s prioritization of public transit funding.
Board President Marc Straub said he added the agenda item Monday afternoon, just 15 minutes shy of the 24-hour cutoff required by state law, because of some of those concerns. But other members of the board expressed alarm and frustration with the last-minute addition to the agenda.
“It was the addition of this particular item on the amended agenda that was the purpose for me being opposed to the amended agenda,” board member Rob Tidd said. “I was actually surprised and dismayed to actually see it on there since we’ve discussed this at length in prior meetings.”
Tidd said he was “very curious to hear” why some fellow board members decided it was necessary to bring the topic up again and made it clear he didn’t think the item should have been added to the agenda.
“I’m opposed to any further discussion on this,” he said.
Chairman Marc Straub defended his decision and the last-minute amendment.
“The reason I included it on the agenda is something that the board members have expressed concern and wanted further discussion and I don’t think that discussion is a bad thing,” he said.
And a discussion was had. The time spent on this one agenda item clocked in about an hour and 15 minutes and even with the short notice, folks on both sides of the issue showed up to fill the small gallery.
Some voiced their opinions during public comment time.
“Given all the things that have happened since this was passed, I don’t think it’s out of the realm to at least give people a chance to take another look at it and decide that’s what they truly want,” Chelan County resident Paul Schmidt said.
Schmidt takes issue with the ridership numbers presented by Link officials and doubts many Chelan Douglas County residents use public transit at all. He said most buses look empty when he sees them, and asked how Link officials track ridership.
Outgoing Link Transit CEO Richard DeRock explained how they track ridership and presented data that shows in June 2023 Link ridership topped 100,000 rides per month, which is a record for the system.
But the main area of focus for the board, especially Kyle Steinburg and Randy Agnew, was getting a measure on the ballot so the voters of Chelan and Douglas Counties would have the chance to repeal the increase in sales tax. According to Steinburg, Link didn’t live up to the promises it made the community back in 2019.
“It is obtuse of (not to) us to recognize that things change,” Board Member Kyle Stienburg said. “Four years ago people did speak. They wanted to believe in our vision. They wanted to believe that. I think the facts of that matter is we failed to execute that vision.”
He said he thinks Link Transit didn’t “hit those benchmarks” and it’s “irresponsible to not give the people a voice” in the form of another ballot measure that would allow voters to reaffirm their commitment to the sales tax.
“I’d like people to evaluate us and our performance. Give them the opportunity to relook at this, seeings how we undeniably failed to give the people what they did vote on. We did not give ‘em that,” he said. “So we should give them that second opportunity to reevaluate the proposal.”
Outgoing CEO Richard DeRock jumped in and pushed back on Steinburg’s remarks.
“I’d just like to comment on that point real quick,” he said.
ReRock said the goal for the first 1/10 of a percent in sales tax was to get a 20% increase in ridership and Link saw an increase of 23% percent. The goal was to start Sunday service, which they did.
“The goal was to double Saturday. We doubled Saturday service,” he said. “The goal was to provide evening service. We have provided evening service until 10 o’clock – we have yet to go to midnight, which is the other part of the proposal.”
ReRock admitted that they’re not operating at the level they would like to be on Sundays, but that they are meeting their obligations as stated in the proposal.
“We have achieved the benchmarks we set,” he said. “I just want to make that point, we did, in fact, achieve the goals we had.”
DeRock pointed out the fact that the sales tax dollars are tied to state funding that equals currently amounts to $1.7 million and will increase to $3.75 million in the coming years. Proposing a ballot measure and repealing the tax would result in the loss of $40 million in state transit dollars over the next 16 years, and would mean Link Transit would not be eligible for state money in the future.
He brought up the Ben Franklin Transit System in Tri-Cities, which had a board that considered a similar action. In that case, they were considering repealing point-one percent of the sales tax. If the sales tax cut would have been approved, Ben Franklin Transit would have lost $33 million over the next five years, according to transit officials. In the end, that board decided to end tax cut talks for good.
Board member Mark Kulaas expressed his dismay that the board was even entertaining the discussion, again. He chastised fellow members who pushed to put the discussion on the agenda and said the people voted, so they should listen to the voters and move on.
“Not every election’s gone my way but I’ve lived with it,” he said. “And I know that some people are dismayed that the voters approved the sales tax increase. Ok, well you know, there are a lot of elected officials I didn’t vote for – but I move on. So this really bothers me that this keeps coming back.“
Not only would repealing the current tax lose Link millions in state dollars and disqualify the system from applying for state grants in the future, Kulaas said repealing the tax now is shortsighted because it doesn’t take into account the growth the two-county region is poised to see in the coming years and decades.
He said with Microsoft’s expansion into Malaga and Douglas County as well as the increased growth, development and property prices there’s going to be even more demand for public transit.
“Economic vitality in the community is enhanced by public transit. Period. There’s no argument about it,” Kulaas said. “People need to get to work. One of the reasons we expanded Sunday service was for service workers.”
If the board pushed for the ballot measure and the tax was repealed, that would surely result in the end of Sunday service, DeRock said.
East Wenatchee Mayor Jerrilea Crawford, although not a Link board member, attended the meeting and spoke during public comments time. She said she thinks the data collection campaign Link officials mounted to get public input before they put the 2019 measure on the ballot was done well, and she considers it an example of what to do right when trying to gather feedback from the community.
“You did a great job of researching and collecting that data and that information so that it was impactful and meaningful when it got to the ballot,” she said. “And they voted and said, ‘Yes, this is what we want.’”
The voters spoke, she said, the community said they want the expanded services and even with hiccups in that expansion it’s on them as elected officials and public staff to make what the voters wanted happen.
Board member Tiffany Gering called Steinburg and Agnew’s push to get the measure on the November ballot was “rushed” and said since staff didn’t have time to compile the proper reports they really wouldn’t have a good idea of what the total consequences of the repealing the sales tax could be.
The fact that incoming CEO Nick Covey would be walking into an incredibly tough situation if they put the measure on the ballot and the sales tax was repealed seemed to make something click for Steinburg, and he made a convoluted motion to postpone discussion of putting a measure to repeal the tax on the ballot for nine-months.
The motion had to be amended after input from Link’s legal council Erin McCool jumped in and then once Steinburg’s motion was squared away, Agnew seconded it and the vote passed 7 to 3. Board members Tidd, Kulaas and Anne Hessburg voted against and all the rest voted for bringing it up again in nine months.
You can listen to that entire exchange here:
My Two Cents
Full disclosure, I volunteered on the citizens’ campaign to get the Link sales tax passed back in 2019. This was before I re-entered the world of journalism, but I still think it’s important to note that I volunteered to help on that campaign now since I’m covering the issue. I volunteered because I personally feel that public transit is important. I think it provides an essential service to some of the most marginalized folks in our community. Services workers need good public transit, and so does everyone who cannot or will not drive themselves. Vehicles are expensive and good public transit is a practical expense for a civilized society. It helps reduce our carbon footprint, alleviates traffic congestion and provides a baseline of mobility for everyone.
One of the trends I find most dismaying about politics since the mid 2010s is that everything, even public health and public transit, have become partisan battle grounds more than ever before. And I suspect that is part of what is going in this situation.
But board member Gering said something very wise, I think, near the end of the meeting. She said that they as Link board members need to think about more than just their own constituents, the people that elected them to the various city and county positions that put them on the Link board. She said they need to think about how to serve Link and the entire Chelan and Douglas county communities it serves while acting as its board of directors.
I think that’s a good way to look at it. And I would hope that elected officials like Steinburg and Agnew realize and think about the fact that in their roles on boards like Link Transit or the Chelan Douglas Health District that they have the honor and responsibility of serving just about every living soul in the two-county region – not just those who voted for them.
Because it is this community, not some political ideology or partisan group, they serve and ultimately answer to.
Shocking. Noted hard line conservatives want to make it harder for people who use transit to be in community. People with disabilities, people who can't afford to own a car, seniors--to hell with them. And we know the climate considerations aren't there, because they simply don't believe in a human caused climate crisis.
Time to get Steinberg and those like him out of power.
Gering has it exactly right. So sad that something that benefits our whole region is defined as evil and wicked because it does not personally benefit the bottom line of certain board members. I am so tired of the me, me, me only greed and selfishness that masquerades as religion and a political outlook.