[nfbwatlk] FW: Coalition & Supporter Update, Transportation for Washington

Sun Nov 20 06:22:01 UTC 2011

Hi --

As a supporter of Transportation for Washington, I want to give you a quick
bi-weekly update.

State Conference

On Monday we held our state conference, "Transforming Transportation," with
nearly 100 people in attendance. Our featured speakers Laura Barrett,
Executive Director of the Transportation Equity Network, and Art Guzzetti,
Vice President of the American Public Transportation Association, provided a
national perspective to the challenges and opportunities we face, and two
panels of local experts, including State House Transportation Committee
Chair Judy Clibborn, provided local perspectives. We hope we look forward to
continuing the conversations started and relationships forged and working
toward transforming state transportation policy and funding.

White Papers

We also released five white papers on Monday. The two-page white papers
cover issues of jobs, roads, transit, health, and stormwater. These are
living documents, so feel free to provide suggestions. You can read our
white papers online at http://t4washington.org/?page_id=8.

Coalition Continues to Grow

63 organizations and business have endorsed our three principles of (1) fix
what's broken to save lives, (2) expand transit choices, and (3) build
great, healthy communities. In addition, 93 public officials have also
endorsed the campaign. That's a testament to the growing support for our
foundation for reform of transportation funding & policy in Washington
State.

Local Organizing

>From March to August, Transportation for Washington was focused on saving
bus service in the Central Puget Sound. Because of declines in sales tax
revenue, Pierce Transit faced a 43% budget shortfall; we mobilized transit
riders to attend public hearings and forced the agency to reconsider "peanut
butter" cuts and instead adopted efficiency-based cuts that saved 1.2
million rides each year. King County Metro also faced declines in sales tax
revenue and needed to implement 17% service cuts. The 2012 Legislature gave
King County Council a local option to save Metro, but initial reticence left
the measure in doubt. We worked to mobilize 15,000 people to send letters
and attend hearings, providing sufficient political space for a negotiated
solution to be found.

We stayed busy this fall too. Under state Initiative 1125, a person driving
at midnight with zero traffic would have to pay the same expensive tolls as
someone driving in rush hour. I-1125 would've blocked efforts to reduce
congestion and pollution, put Olympia politicians in charge of setting toll
rates, and effectively killed light rail to Bellevue. That's why our
political and policy directors, April Putney and Carrie Dolwick, worked hard
with the No on I-1125 campaign to help talk to thousands of voters
statewide. I-1125 failed 47% to 53%.

In Clark County, C-Tran faced 35% cuts unless Proposition 1 was passed on
their fall ballot to increase the local sales tax by 0.2%. Organizers
Heather Melton and Andrew Austin built a strong coalition of progressives,
businesses, public officials and ran a great field effort to call 10,000
people. Prop 1 passed 54% to 46%.

In Seattle, we worked to pass a comprehensive transportation package to make
a down-payment on transit corridor improvements, fill potholes, and new
sidewalks. Because the state legislature hasn't given progressive funding
options for local voters, the package relied on a flat $60 car tab fee. In a
short timeframe, our campaign director Viet Shelton and I (the field
director) helped build a team that called 20,000 people and ran two
canvasses that reached thousands of more homes. In the end, Seattle voters
sided with the 99% movement's sentiment and thought we needed more
progressive funding options.

Connecting Washington Task Force

This summer, Governor Gregoire created the "Connecting Washington Task
Force" to set state transportation principles and come-up with funding
options to propose to the 2012 legislature and potentially the voters. The
task force has met three times and will meet again on November 29. Through
representatives on the task force and advocacy, we are working to make sure
the Transportation for Washington principles of fix-it first, more transit,
and healthy communities are the cornerstone of the Connecting Washington
Task Force recommendations. This is our chance to set the right principles,
so please weigh-in with the Task Force on their official online survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MJD7YS7.

Thank you again for your support.

Sincerely,

Brock Howell

Transportation for Washington <http://www.t4washington.org/>  Field Director

Futurewise <http://www.futurewise.org/>  King County Program Director

Work: 206-343-0681 ext. 112

Cell: 503-421-9936

P.S. I'll be on vacation this coming week.

  _____  

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