Funds drying up for Metro Transit bus service in Seattle

With a couple of taxes expiring next year, Metro Transit is warning about major cuts to bus service if they don’t find some new money fast.

A $20 car tab fee and a $32 million stipend from the state will both dry up in 2014.

Metro’s General Manager Kevin Desmond told the Seattle City Council Monday, if they don’t find another $75 million per year, one-sixth of all downtown bus services could be cut.

The Seattle Times reports one suggestion is a new $150 car tab fee per $10,000 of vehicle value, 60 percent of which would go to transit, along with an eight cent state-wide increase in gas taxes.

Desmond is hoping the city council will join him in asking state lawmakers for new taxing authority in what he calls the “Keep Seattle Moving” campaign.