Switching gears now to some of the local measures, voters across much of Spokane County will decide whether to continue a sales tax for Spokane Transit Authority.

Prop one renews an existing 2/10 of 1% sales tax for STA.

And proceeds, would be used to maintain and enhance the existing systems, as well as improve and expand public transportation through new modes and programs.

The measure would continue the current voter approved rate through 2048.

Joining me now to talk more about this measure is former Washington state senator and local business owner Andy Billig, and the president of Spokane Business Association, Gavin Cooley.

Thank you to both of you for joining us for this discussion today.

Andy, we're going to start with you.

You helped draft the argument for this measure that's in our voter's guide.

And this is not a new tax.

It's actually a continuation of a voter approved sales tax that is set to expire in two years.

If you could kind of tell us why you believe voters need to vote yes on this to continue STA services.

Yes.

Well, first of all, thank you for hosting this conversation.

It's great to see you and great to be here.

And with my good friend Gavin.

You know, I think the most important thing for people to know about this ballot measure is just what you said, that this is a renewal so we can prevent cuts to bus service without anyone's taxes going up.

And, you know, STA has really delivered for this community.

It's a very well route, nationally recognized, transit agency for the great job that they do.

And they provide 34,000 trips a day.

Think about 34,000 of that, 34,000 students and people going to work, and seniors who don't have another way to, take to get out.

Otherwise, people going for entertainment, taking the bus so they're not driving when they've been drinking.

There's so much to STA and they're doing a really good job delivering for our community.

But it's also important for people who don't ride the bus, because think about those 40, 34,000 people.

If they didn't ride the bus, that's more traffic, more competition for parking and, you know, more air pollution.

So this works on an economic level, works on a personal level.

It works for people who ride the bus or works for people who don't ride the bus.

That's why I'm supporting it, and that's why I'm asking others to support it as well.

All right.

Moving on to Gavin now.

And the Spokane Business Association is opposed to STA prop one.

Kind of give us a reason why and why you think current services wouldn't be hampered if the voter says no to this.

Thank you, Dana, and thank you for having us here.

And likewise, so good to be here with my friend Andy.

I agree with everything Andy just said.

I'm a big supporter of transit, and I think we all should be, probably the only part of what Andy just said that I disagree with As the CFO of the city for 17 years, I studied their financials very carefully.

And the one thing I would say is not renewing the 2/10 will not in any way cut services.

They still have 6/10 that are permanent.

That's over $100 million a year.

They have interest income, they have fair income and many grants that are coming in.

They'll be fine as far as current services.

So I just want to frame the real question that I think is before voters is, is this the priority right now?

You know, we have current services and we don't want to see those cut.

Absolutely not.

The question is do we want to enhance services.

And that's what this two towns is about.

And so what I really want to highlight, and I almost can't believe we're having this conversation because what's happening in Spokane is we have the number two overdose death rate in America of larger jurisdictions.

We have the number two rate of hospitalizations for non-fatal overdoses.

We have a 35% vacancy approximately in downtown office buildings.

We see the effect of what's going on with this, like health and safety crisis every day in front of us.

And, you know, anybody that doubts it.

So get off the Division Street exit and just you see it immediately.

We're losing a person a day.

And so when we think about that and then we think is that is that our priority or is enhancing, say Division Street.

I can't believe we're talking about expanding transit services.

We should sure maintain them.

But I just that's where I'm at on this.

This current tax that would be extended, renewed with no increase.

If that goes down, that would be a 20% cut to the revenue to STA So I want to the idea that this wouldn't affect service is just simply not true.

Think about your household budget getting cut by 20%.

And can I just interlude on that?

Because just while you're on that specific point, when they put it in place and I sat down with the then CEO and their finance people back in 2016, when it came in place, they passed the 2/10.

We said they didn't need it.

And over the course since then to now, they brought in 169 million.

Over that same period, they increased the reserves from 40 million to 274 million.

In other words, the tax that you're saying they need so desperately to maintain service has done nothing other than increase their own appropriated fund balance, which is in our household terms, it's like your savings account.

And I keep hearing people saying, well, Gavin, you don't know what that means.

I'm like, I think as the CFO of the city for 17 years.

I know exactly what that means.

I get a chuckle that opponents are using the reserve against STA It's actually a highlight of really good financial stewardship that there's a healthy reserve.

When I was Senate Majority Leader, we always looked at these government entities and said, who had a reserve and wanted the state to have a healthy reserve that reserve is used for projects and STA doesn't use debt.

When they use projects, they use their reserve.

That's why it's there.

(Gavin) Well, it hasn't been used... Think about so many public entitities use debt, so they're sending interest off out to some bank or somewhere else.

STA uses the reserve so all the money stays here.

But I just one of the one other point I want to make to Gavin's original point is this idea about public safety versus busses, you know, and I've heard that that there's going to be a jail tax, that and this is somehow going to interfere, which is a political person for many years, I don't believe.

But even so, you know, I think it's a terrible slogan to say, you know, fewer busses, more jails, but it's even worse policy because think about this.

It's a false choice.

We should believe a little bit more in Spokane that we can do both.

We can do public safety and have great transit.

this idea that there are these other priorities in Spokane.

The voter voting no, though on prop one doesn't just designate then money going into these priorities.

So how do you justify that shift?

How do we say no to this then?

And then we get that money towards addiction prevention and some of these other things.

Downtown revitalization.

How would you somehow make that work?

Because saying no does not mean the money goes directly to those problems.

No.

Absolutely not.

What it does is it opens the avenue in the conversation or it closes it if you if you pass it and Andy just said it's jail, it's not.

So just this week, the commissioners and the city council and the mayor said, yeah, we're not ready to go out this November.

We need to have dialog with the county and or the citizens and make sure everybody agrees with what we're doing and get the feedback.

So we'll wait until next year.

Well, if we pass this tax this year, and then we come back and ask for another 2/10 next year, it won't pass.

It's just that simple.

All right.

I want to move to Andy.

Something we've been talking about is this Division Street bus rapid transit corridor for voters that don't know what that means, it's a it's a corridor that in the future will will be kind of a direct route with stops.

But from the Mead area generally to downtown, I think voters want to know, are we at a point where we need to start talking about this?

Do we have the ridership that means we need this money to start talking about this?

There are bigger cities that are congested.

Seattle, Portland.

We don't have that kind of congestion yet.

Is it time or can we put this off?

So thank you very much.

Well, we've already decided to do bus rapid transit on Division.

That was part of the North Spokane corridor funding.

When the state gave the funding for the North Spokane corridor, it was in tandem with the Division bus rapid transit, because the idea is that that traffic goes off division.

And then it's not about just the bus service, it's about what does that catalyze?

What does that look like in terms of increased housing, increased, economic activity and better esthetics?

And so we've already made that decision.

The state has provided us with funding for that.

And, the federal government has committed funding, and then we need to have a local match which would be provided, by this.

But, you know, so yes, we've already done that.

And our North Spokane corridor funding is absolutely tied to bus rapid transit.

On on Division, I think, you know, if we think more holistically about, you know, whether it's about Division or it's about STA services as a whole, STA is about economic vitality and quality of life.

And think about all of those rides and all of those people going to work are going to businesses, or going to their doctor's appointment.

This is about economic activity, sure, on Division, but it's about the county as a whole.

And that's why there's so many people that support this.

That's funds coming here.

More construction jobs, more bus service, more quality of life for Spokane County.

All right.

Thanks to both of you.

This is a very robust conversation, and I hope we, educated our viewers and voters out there.