Resolution 4029 - Laserfiche WebLink

WHEREAS,the Master System Plan, approved by the RTA on October 28, 1994, is inconsistent with Vision 2020's high capacity transit's objective of linking all four of the region's metropolitan centers by failing to extend light rail service into Everett in Phase One; and WHEREAS, during the first 16 years of the program(i.e., Phase One)local taxes generated within the City of Everett to support the RTA Master System Plan is forecasted to be $158 million, while the value of capital investments and services is forecasted to be $65 million— meaning Everett residents will receive $ .41 in benefits for each dollar in local taxes paid through the year 2010; and WHEREAS,the plan is particularly unfair to Everett residents because it asks them to vote in favor of a plan that does not include light-rail service into their City--then asks them to subsidize others in areas within the RTA region by paying far more into the RTA in taxes than they stand to receive in transit services; and WHEREAS, at the end of Phase One there may be a debt of at least $800 million and, Everett residents will be required to pay their share of the RTA debt-- further adding to the unfairness to Everett residents; and WHEREAS, those cost/benefit calculations do not factor in the sources of state and federal taxes that will help fund the system, and do not look at the financial impacts over the entire life of the bonds being contemplated for the RTA system; and WHEREAS, a newly constituted U.S. Congress and State Legislature may be far less inclined to provide transit subsidies than their predecessors; and WHEREAS,Everett residents are further penalized by the fact that they could overwhelmingly defeat this unfair RTA plan in a local election, yet see it succeed on a three- county basis and be required to pay additional Sales and Motor Vehicle Excise (MVET) taxes for a system they don't support; and WHEREAS,there is no guarantee of a Phase II RTA plan, and thus no assurance of light rail to Everett in a"Phase II;" and WHEREAS,the RTA plan as currently proposed is also unfair to Everett businesses as it increases the probability of long-term economic damage because of the distinct disadvantage when competing with businesses which would have light rail at their doorstep; and WHEREAS, the plan as a whole offers more than is capable of being delivered; for example, pledging to all three counties that they will receive more than they pay in, and noting that Snohomish County gets a"good deal," when in fact only six miles of the entire 69-mile light-rail system are set aside for Snohomish County; and