Lawmaker questions Sound Transit’s use of tax dollars
Jan 30, 2012, 3:15 PM | Updated: 6:01 pm
With tax collections falling, an extension of Sound Transit’s light rail to Federal Way by 2023 as promised to voters in 2008, seems unlikely.
State Representative Katrina Asay (R-Milton) wants to change the way Sound Transit tax dollars are spent, or possibly let cities pull out of the regional transit agency altogether.
“If the plan is so drastically changed that it no longer benefits one area to be part of the transit district, then there needs to be some sort of compensation for that,” Asay says.
Other state lawmakers want to wait on changes to Sound Transit until a performance audit by the state is complete, but Asay says cities have been paying into a plan that may never come to fruition.
“Federal Way and the south Sound have put in a lot of money that seems to be being re-directed. I believe that we really need some transparency in what’s going on,” she says. “That’s why one of my bills states that if you’re going to have information and documents, that information needs to be in the ballot measure instead of in an office somewhere where the citizens can’t actually get to it and read.”
A Sound Transit spokesman would not speak to legislation to rewrite rules for spending Sound Transit tax dollars or to allow cities to opt out of the agency’s taxing district.
97.3 KIRO FM’s Tim Haeck contributed to this report.
