Pierce County's Prop. 1 fails by 704 votes
TACOMA, Wash. -- Weeks after Election Day, the tally is finally in.
Pierce County's Proposition 1 has failed by 704 votes, leaving the fate of Pierce Transit's night and weekend services uncertain.
The proposition would have funded Pierce Transit by raising the sales tax 3 cents for every $10 spent.
According to the final results, 100,943 voters rejected the measure while 100,239 approved it.
No recount is scheduled, though the losing side could request one as long as it picks up the $200,000 bill.
Pierce County's Proposition 1 has failed by 704 votes, leaving the fate of Pierce Transit's night and weekend services uncertain.
The proposition would have funded Pierce Transit by raising the sales tax 3 cents for every $10 spent.
According to the final results, 100,943 voters rejected the measure while 100,239 approved it.
No recount is scheduled, though the losing side could request one as long as it picks up the $200,000 bill.
PT went too far. I would have supported the measyre IF:
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1. they had sought funds only to sustain current services, not expansion
2. the tax included a sunset provision to expire after two years. I am not interested in increasing what they get for eternity, they will just overspend when the economy improves and then come whining for more in the next downturn.
3. They included every area of Pierce County in the vote since every area of Pierce County would pay the tax. Gerrymandering the district to get the most favorable result is proof of corruption.
Yeah, can't afford all the taxes there are now! If they would cut some of the higher ups they could keep the buses running but oh no can't do that. Cut service and blame the taxpayers. Good bye buses.
 @Willie69 It's true...Drive into another county and you'll pay at least 2% lessÂ
I see the Pierce Transit buses servicing Federal Way. That needs to stop. They need to stop at the county line, drop the riders off, and stick to Pierce County.
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I see empty buses running after 10 PM on a Friday night. That needs to stop.Â
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Raise rates. Cut management. Cut salaries.Â
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Need a bus but not in the service area? Call a cab.
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What will really happen is pierce Transit will re-draw the lines, eliminate a few routes and a 1,000 or so no votes and then put the ballot back up.Â
 @John Gault what will actually happen is Pierce transit is putting a halt to service completely after 7 pm on weekdays and  on weekends.  Those that depend entirely upon PT for work and commuters will have to find alternatives after 7 and on weekends.  They are also cutting the shuttle and special services for the disabled.
I say cutting routes and service to a needed commodity that has already suffered extensive cuts in the past two years is not the way to raise revenue for continued operation of the services. Â A look at administrative and managerial expenses as well as cuts to salaries and benefits to those who are not direct as in not a driver, maintenance, etc. would provide some relief to their perceived grief.
After the last round of route reductions and cuts, Pierce already has the worst transit system of any city the same size and population. Â Soon to be non existent if this trend continues.
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 @John Gault Those buses 'servicing' Federal Way are taking Pierce County residents to and from Fed. Way to & from such Pierce county locations as Edgewood, Puyallup, South Hill & Graham. Along Hwy 161 a person can get a bus to Milton also, which is partly in King County & partly in Pierce. I can't see the Fed Way people having much use for those buses
I have ridden the buses in Pierce County. Not one ride went by when the drivers let some rider on for free! I paid my full fare each time and now I work my fingers to the bone so I don't have to ride the buses any more and watch the waste continue. I know there are those out there less fortunate than me, but let's be reasonable, stop letting folks on for free! There are programs out there for those looking for work or who need help subsidizing their ridership.
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Additionally, they are just one more organization that needs to clean house from the top down! They are so administration-heavy, it's not funny.
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Until they do either/both of the above items, I will not be supportive of their efforts to hold the bus-riding residents of Pierce County hostage....
@Justice4Me - Very well put.Â
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 There are a lot of administrative agencies in our state, including TPU, financially raping the public and taxing homeowners out of their homes in order to maintain the comforts that those in power have grown accustomed to.Â
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 It is disgusting that the transit system is holding people hostage especially as they've recently increased their fares. The greedy bastiges.Â
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 Greed within our government has spun so far out of control that without a watchdog group regulating how all state, county and city administrative offices operate, all of us citizens will spiral into poverty and debt just to keep up with increased taxes.
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 @Justice4Me I suppose you are for taxing the "rich" though. Even though some pay no taxes,some pay no taxes and get a check. That needs to stop.Â
Damned if ya do and damned if ya don't.
Reminds me of the ferries debacle.
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We all scream that the system is abusive, so we cut it to the bone. Then when a driver calls in sick, there's no back up to cover.
Then we scream even LOUDER because we created the problem in the 1st place.
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Privatize all public transportation. If you use it, you pay for it.
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Pierce transit does indeed do a service for those thousands who for whatever reason do not have a car. Taxpayers do not pay for my gas, but Pierce transit is available for  "us", the public to use, so that particular arguement is moot. I do have issues however with the Pierce Shuttle which can be seen dropping off and picking up clients at the Emerald Queen. If these folks gave gambling money, they can use a taxi. I would start with scrutinizing the activities of the Shuttle.
 @jennieb Who do you think pays for the roads you drive on?
 @merline  @jennieb try gas tax , car tabs to start, cut the road crap roads are need for the econ. to run
 @jennieb then who pays for the gas the uses
I will start off by saying I don't live in Pierce county, but not funding bus service is really short term thinking. I mean, you will lose businessness to areas with better transit. And you will also lose residents. And for those who think they the bus riders are the ones thinking it's all about me, let me tell you it's those that don't see the value of transit that are the ones that are thinking it's all about me. And I hope karma doesn't come back in a few years and you need that transit system, but it isn't there anymore. This is coming from someone who has basically given up driving because of eyesite problems, but if you told me that 10 years ago, I wouldn't have thought about the value of transit. So hopefully all of you gripping about the money they wanted will never really need the system.
 @Karen_in_WA If you saw the way Pierce Transit worked in fact, not in theory, you wouldn't fund it either.
we have worked for these guys ... what joke ... typical govenment nonsense .... they need someone to clean house at that looney bin
I'll recount them for $150,000
How many times have you seen an empty bus on the way back to the terminal or garage? Why not call it an express or non stop' route and drop anyone that needs that ride off outside of the Terminal/Garage?
Trust me this will be back. They will continue to trot this out every election until it gets passed.
PT needs to start looking at it's service and it's employees. Also it won't kill anyone to raise the far by a quarter to help make up some of the shortfall. Everything keeps going up except my paycheck. No raise for me in 3 years.
GOOD!
What you all fail to realize is, this just gives yet another reason for companies to move to Seattle and King County. If your employees can't get to work would you want to have a business in that area? We already lost Russell because they were given a free office building that conveniently sits on top of the bus tunnel. I'm sick and tired of being told what a dump Pierce County is and how King County is the "promised land". This just proves the KingCo people's point.
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I, for one, will NOT be patronizing any business that came out against this including Brown and Haley and the auto dealers in Puyallup. And I am about to purchase a new car as well. Tit for tat, their loss.
 @Ben Brooks I am the opposite. I would be buying my next car else where if this passed. I would also frequent local businesses less if it passed.Â
John you would spend more to save less by driving out of the county. wait till the govenor puts taxs on internet sales, than pierce transit will be ok making tax money on the sale coming from out of stae go govenor
 @Ben Brooks you like king county then move we do not need you
buses are so far down the list for a company decision of where to locate you can not see it
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Well said Ben. I two will not patonise car dealerships in Tacoma. Everyone outthere, join together, to put it to the dealerships where it hurts, in there bottom line.They did math during the campayne like they do in the process of buying a car. Buy your next car in Kitsap of thurston county for a better buy.
Well said Ben. people of pierce county, boycott tacoma car dealerships as well. Shop kitsap and thurston counties if you want to save money. let hit the car dealerships where it hurts, in the bottom line.
@Ben Brooks Sounds to me like the Russell didn't leave because of bus transit, a free building would probably attract a lot of businesses elsewhere. The higher sales taxes are going to discourage non essential purchases and large ticket purchases. You add that much more taxes to the price of a car and you are not talking small pocket change.
 @Jatok  @Ben I can say from an insiders view, that Russell did not leave because of public transit or anything else like that. They left because the CEO in charge did not like Tacoma from the start and his vacation house was on Lake Washington. As well as the fact that all the foreign money coming in did not want to go to Tacoma to deal with Russell but wanted to go to Seattle from the airport. There were many unhappy employees at Russell who quit their jobs when the move happened. It was all what was best for the top management and screw the employees at Russell.
@dg54321 @Ben The bottom line is these are private owned businesses and they are in business to make money. This idea that these employers are somehow beholden to their employees if they want to close or move is not reality. The owners have the money invested in this enterprise not the employees and once an employee is paid for his/her work the owner has met his obligation to them.
GOOD! I don't want any more of my tax money going to that money pit they call Pierce Transit. I don't use it so why should I have to pay for it? They hardly have service out where I live anyways! You need more money? Have the people who USE it PAY for it.
Tottooed. if it would have passed they might have expanded service to your area. the fares they recieve doesn't even break even for the maintenace costs of running a bus.They get most of there funding from sales tax. And not caring only shows your thinking of yourself, not the thousands who depend the the transit system.
 @Geneo they the fairs need to go up to cover costs stop coming to the tax payer
 @Geneo who said make a profit i said cover their operating cost
the agency isn't set up to make a profit. but to provide a service to the people of pierce county. tell me one goverment agency that makes money. what do you think it takes to run the ferry from pt defiance?
100% Agree!
If it would have passed they would have been asking for more money next year. Metro has been doing that forever.
This State needs a full accounting of where all the tax dollars are going.
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The board meting I went to they the board members stated it would substain them for twenty years, but the car dealerships put false info out to the public about the tax increase, stating it was 10% it was the governor who added 3 tenths to car and boat sales only, pierce transits request was only to 9.8%
The problem is that it would have raised the sales tax in ALL of Pierce County to 10.1% and only a small handful were allowed to vote on it. Pierce Transit is VERY ineffiecient. There are dozens of empty buses roving the county at all hours of the day and night when smaller shuttle types would suffice. This isn't a "me first" county. We are trying to be responsible. Pierce Transit should do the same. I am all for helping when needed, but PT needs to prove that it's doing their part first. Clearly, we don't feel that they are.
erika. your wrong on the 10.1% it would have been 9.8% our govenor added .3% to car sales and boat sales only. in short you would have paid 3 cents for every $10.00 spent at the mall.
that is a shame. 704 people make 1000s unable to get to the places they need to. Maybe Gov Inslee can now fix th budget by slashing all state road repairs to this "me first" county.
@calapete It wasn't the 704 that made it so 1000's were unable to get where they needed. It was the 704 PLUS all the others who voted no.
 How about we have all rider pay the FULL cost of riding the bus...no subsidies.Â
Fund roads to the level we already pay for...make WSDOT far more efficient ....no me first, we first.
 @calapete Here's a crazy idea, maybe those actually using public transportation should be paying for it instead of all of us. Nobody publicly subsidies my gas or insurance, or for that matter, my repair bills on my car. Raise the price of a trip on the bus to what it actually costs.
 @dg54321 yeah, like those state highways you drive on every day? Did you pay the toll? you are welcome for your free road.
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I don't live in Pierce county so I dont care, you people are backwards and no business is going to move to your po dunk little town.
 @dg54321  @calapete While they are at it they should privatize keeping the pass cleared of snow over the winter. I don't drive over the pass so why should I pay for all the snow plows and sand?
 @4ShotLatte  @dg54321  @calapete "why should I pay for all the snow plows and sand?"
Don't like paying for those, don't drive. Take the bus.
There we go thinking of ouselfs again.. think of low income people, childern, and the handicap, and elderly.
 @OrcasThunder  @Geneo no i do not care i sick of the same lame arguments they have friends, family phones to call govt offices, the mail, its 2012 not 1912.
why do liberal always have to name call when someone doesn't see eye to eye with them.
 @armor  @OrcasThunder  @Geneo And what of the disabled, the elderly who can't drive and depend on the bus to get places...like to the doctor's office, government offices, banks, grocery and pharmacy stores, and even jobs?
What this does is force the marginal people who DO need the bus to give up on getting help that they need.
But then, that wouldn't bother you, would it? They would be stuck in their homes, and you wouldn't have to look at them. Why, wait long enough and they will just die - and you won't even read the obituaries.
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Oh, and get an education in English..."when their is a will their is away", did you go to a charter school?
armor. I agree on the IE phones, rent ect. this is a Obama thing, The people who voted for him will get what they asked for, the rest of will suffer along with them.
 @OrcasThunder  @Geneo when their is a will their is away drive through the poor areas and you see cars all over
 @armor  @Geneo And yet you complain about people on welfare because they can't find a job they can get to...don't you?
 @Geneo so becouse your eldery and handicap you have to ride the bus what an insult
I am sick of  it for the childernÂ
I am sick of pay for the low income IE phones, rent, food, medical ect ect
 @calapete Deal with it. it'll always be "me first", whether you're riding the bus, or funding it.