Sixty-one percent of Seattle voters passed Proposition 1, which will give King County Metro an extra $45 million per year for in-city bus routes. That money will come from a 0.1-percent sales-tax increase and a $60 car-tab fee.
It will be up to the city to decide how to spend the funds, and with the extra money, it could mean big boosts for new service. The car-tab fee will start being charged in June or July, and the sales tax will increase in April, according to The Seattle Times.
Service increases will roll out in June and September, with a 15-percent increase: These include 38 more buses on the street per day and more service on 49 routes, the Times reported. Routes going to Ballard, downtown and West Seattle, as well as those that are overcrowded, will get priority.
One potential snag is the increase in traffic. But if current bus riders decide to drive, as they likely would if bus-service cuts continued, we’d see a traffic increase of apocalyptic proportions. People will choose to take the bus if they have more frequent and reliable options.
Despite critics, this is what our city needs. We have more ridership than ever, with density coming in waves. Seattle still has a lot of improvements to make before our transportation is drastically improved, but we made the right move on this one.
Proposition 1B to create a city-subsidized preschool passed with 69 percent of the votes. The vote surprised much of the country as Republicans took over. Prop. 1B will create a $58 million pilot program for low-income preschoolers through a home levy.
As cliche as the saying is, children are our future, and Prop. 1B’s passage means an investment in their future. As the Wall Street Journal reported, a $1 investment in pre-school could have a $1.80 to $17.07 return.
And guns will be more difficult to get in the state. Initiative 594, which allows for background checks on all gun transactions, passed with almost 60 percent of voters in its favor, while Initiative 591, maintaining background checks to federal standards, failed. I-594 extends background checks that already happen at licensed dealerships to gun purchases online and at gun shows.
Despite gun advocates’ complaints, these restrictions don’t inhibit their ability to buy guns; it just makes sure that the guns are going into the right hands. As local and national stories continue to remind us, this is becoming increasingly important.
And to no ones surprise, this year’s iteration of the Seattle monorail proposition failed with 80 percent of voters rejecting the idea.
In many ways, this election wasn’t all that surprising. Let’s hope all of these results will serve us well in the future.