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Spokane Transit asks voters to renew 0.2¢ sales tax; says funding critical to BRT and operations
Summary
Spokane Transit Authority CEO Carl Otterstrom told Cheney council that Proposition 1 would renew an existing 0.2-cent local sales tax through 2048 to sustain service, leverage state and federal grants (including an $82 million federal allocation for a Division BRT project) and avoid future service reductions.
Spokane Transit Authority CEO Carl Otterstrom presented to the Cheney City Council the agency—ase for a sales-tax renewal that will appear on the upcoming primary election ballot.
Otterstrom said the measure is a renewal, not a new tax, and would extend the current 0.2-cent rate through 2048. "So this is not a new tax," he said, adding that on a $10 retail purchase the levy equals about "2¢" directed to public transportation. He told council members that roughly $30 million a year is collected districtwide and that failing to renew the levy would risk a winding back of the service levels established over the last decade.
The presentation outlined how the sales-tax renewal would both maintain existing service and allow STA to pursue capital projects from its STA Connect 2035 plan. Otterstrom said the agency has positioned itself to leverage large grants: he noted an approximately $82,000,000 federal allocation toward the Division Bus Rapid Transit project and roughly $12,500,000 in state funding that is conditioned on the local sales tax being maintained. "We completed, one of the centerpieces of the program, CityLine in Downtown Spokane ... about $14,000,000 under budget," he said, detailing prior fiscal discipline that STA says supports future investments.
Why it matters: Otterstrom told Cheney officials the renewal is intended to avert future service cuts and to preserve local match needed to secure major state and federal dollars, particularly for the Division BRT. He also fielded questions about mobility-on-demand pilots and said those early pilots focus on areas beyond current fixed-route coverage; Cheney proper is largely served today by regular routes but could be included in future expansion depending on pilot results.
Provenance: topicintro: {"block_id_start":"SEG 548","block_id_end":"SEG 548","evidence_excerpt":"My name is Carl Otterstrom. I'm the CEO of Spokane Transit." , "reason_code":"topicintro"}; topfinish: {"block_id_start":"SEG 900","block_id_end":"SEG 905","evidence_excerpt":"So thank you for your time. Thanks for your partnership.", "reason_code":"topicfinish"}.
