If approved by vot­ers, Spokane Tran­sit would:

• Main­tain the exist­ing tran­sit sys­tem by replac­ing bus­es and vans at the end of their use­ful life
• Improve fixed-route bus ser­vice with high­er fre­quen­cy, more pas­sen­ger con­ve­niences like shel­ters and real-time sched­ule infor­ma­tion, and extend­ed hours on weekends
• Expand tran­sit ser­vice to new areas and con­struct new and enhanced park and ride lots

In total, more than 25 projects through­out the region are planned. Exam­ples include:

• Extend­ed Sat­ur­day evening bus ser­vice past 11 p.m. system-wide
• Direct bus ser­vice between Air­way Heights and Cheney, Logan and Lin­coln Heights, and Spokane Val­ley Mall and Greenacres
• Non-stop bus ser­vice between Lib­er­ty Lake and Down­town Spokane dur­ing peak hours
• Bus Rapid Tran­sit (the Cen­tral City Line) between Spokane Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, Gon­za­ga, the Uni­ver­si­ty Dis­trict, Down­town Spokane and Browne’s Addition
• Night and week­end bus ser­vice to Indi­an Trail
• Four new and expand­ed tran­sit cen­ters to allow more con­nec­tions out­side of Down­town Spokane
• Bus and van replace­ment at the end of their use­ful life

If approved by vot­ers, some new ser­vices would be avail­able as ear­ly as May 2017. Those projects include:

• New ser­vice on East Indi­ana in Spokane Val­ley to Prov­i­dence Med­ical Park
• Night and week­end ser­vice on North Nevada
• More fre­quent ser­vice in Air­way Heights dur­ing peak trav­el hours
• Late-night ser­vice on Saturdays

The remain­ing main­te­nance, improve­ment and expan­sion projects would hap­pen over the next decade through­out Spokane County’s tran­sit ser­vice area.

In April 2015, STA pro­posed a sim­i­lar bal­lot mea­sure, Propo­si­tion 1. STA incor­po­rat­ed feed­back from vot­ers and con­se­quent­ly, the bal­lot mea­sure in Novem­ber 2016 will:

• Ask for a small­er tax increase
• Cre­ate a quick­er time­line for new ser­vices through­out the region
• Apply the tax increase in phas­es over a 3-year period

Fund­ing from taxes

If this propo­si­tion is approved by vot­ers, STA will receive up to an addi­tion­al two-tenths of one per­cent (0.2%) of local sales tax. This means that for every ten-dol­lar retail pur­chase, STA would receive up to an addi­tion­al two cents in sales tax. 

For the aver­age house­hold in Spokane Coun­ty, this would be an impact of about $2 a month or $24 a year. The tax increas­es would take effect in phases:

• A one-tenth of one per­cent (0.1%) increase in local sales tax effec­tive April 1, 2017
• A sec­ond one-tenth of one per­cent (0.1%) increase effec­tive April 1, 2019
• Both sales tax increas­es expire no lat­er than Decem­ber 31, 2028 unless renewed by voters

Fund­ing from oth­er sources

If approved by vot­ers, Propo­si­tion 1 would enable STA to match local tax dol­lars with fund­ing from two oth­er sources:

• Increased rev­enue from more rid­ers using STA’s services
• Com­pet­i­tive state and fed­er­al grants

That means that for every $1 dol­lar gen­er­at­ed in sales tax, STA could match up to 54 cents to fund the STA Mov­ing For­ward plan.

Planned fare increas­es will also pro­vide addi­tion­al rev­enue from STA riders.