So the other day I had a wild hair and started comparing bus service in the Wenatchee Valley to what Twin Transit provides. There really is no comparison. So I sent an email to Twin Transit and this is the answer I received: Thank you for your email. Your idea of serving the communities outside Centralia and Chehalis is one we receive somewhat regularly. I am familiar with most of the public transit agencies in the state including Link Transit in Wenatchee, as well as Grant Transit Authority in Moses Lake, both systems travel significantly beyond the urbanized community to serve small surrounding populations. As you may be aware, public bus systems are not private businesses but rather are supported mostly by local sales tax. In Lewis County, a .2% local sales tax is collected for the bus inside the cities of Centralia and Chehalis only--surrounding communities such as Napavine, Winlock, Vader, Toledo, Morton, etc. do not collect the tax and do not contribute to the cost of the bus. I can’t say for certain, but I suspect that systems such as Link Transit have much larger taxation boundaries than Twin Transit. Back in the ‘80s there was a vote in Lewis County to create a county-wide transit agency but the vote failed; and to my knowledge it hasn’t been tried since. Expanding the taxation boundary into more communities is a technical and challenging process, and very political. At this time Twin Transit does not have any plans to expand our boundary; but having said, boundary expansion decisions are not necessarily up to the transit, they’re up to the voters. How do all of my Lewis County friends feel about this? Are we willing to pay more in taxes so that our town, and Lewis county, can have a bit more economic growth or should I just let sleeping dogs lie?
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 02:40:01 +0000
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