Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Feb. 4 Hearing for House Bill 1393, 'Local Option' for Community Transit

picture of woman boarding Route 412 bus
HB 1393 is Community Transit’s top legislative priority during this 2015 legislative session (see the original blog post here). Passage of HB 1393 (or its Senate companion bill SB 5326) would give the transit agency authorization to increase its sales tax up to 0.3 percent upon voter approval.

A hearing in the House Transportation Committee for HB 1393 is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4 at the John L. O’Brien Building, House Hearing Rm B. Community Transit Board of Directors Chair, Mike Todd, will travel to Olympia to testify in favor of the bill, along with supporters from throughout Snohomish County.

If the bill is passed by the full Legislature, Community Transit’s board would be authorized to send a ballot measure to voters in the service district asking their support for increased transit funding.

This Thursday, Feb. 5, the board will take action on a June 2015 service expansion plan that could bring back Sunday and holiday bus service. However, current forecasts indicate that any new service hours added in the next few years are likely to be taken up by schedule maintenance—adding time to current trips because their actual travel time is getting longer.

New transit funding could be used for:

If you are interested in learning more about HB 1393 and the public hearing process in general, you might find these links of interest:

All about Committee Hearings (along with some great tips on how the public can participate:http://leg.wa.gov/legislature/Pages/Testify.aspx


Can’t attend the hearing in person? You Can Watch Live:http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwliveplayer&eventID=2015020084

For Fun: the Lyrics to Schoolhouse Rock’s, “I’m Just A Bill”
http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/Bill.html