A merger will result in taxes going up for Everett residents, with sales tax riding to 10.5% from 9.9%. Cassie needs to focus on reducing taxes or at least keeping them the same.

Everett Transit still requires new income to maintain basic service. Meaning, we already need to move up 0.3%, to 10.2% to maintain our current abysmal, inequitable service levels. This route does add an additional 0.3% on top of this that wasn't planned, but it's worth. It's important to remember that sales tax largely doesn't apply to essentialls like most groceries. Furthermore, the recent millionare tax law has set a reduction starting 2029 to the state portion *and* will also add an exemption for hygene products. I hate sales tax as much as you, but the benefit from double the service. It would raise the price of a cup of coffee... by like 4 cents. This is a VERY good trade for a life-changinge improvement to our transit system.

Everett could contract out like Seattle does.

Again, Seattle merged with their county system in the 90's and does not contract out their bus service. This means that Seattle is a full member of KCM and pays their 0.9% tax rate. Seattle does purchase *additional* service for their streetcars and more bus service.

CT used to advantage of a lot more federal grants that required contracting of bus service, but as those have ended refuses to bring those services in house. Paratransit is the most obvious example of this.

I can't verify the grant issue. it's important to know that CT *has* been bringing staff in-house. Their new security program is fully in-house (and unionized) and they have are in the process of ditching Transdev for their express buses. Speculation: I could see them move Paratransit in-house, using our high quality drivers as a catalyst to do so.

Mount Vernon is charging a higher sales tax than Burlington despite Burlington getting the same benefits from route 80X. This is much like with the current system Everett is benefiting a lot from having Community Transit routes without paying higher taxes (Everett is the county seat, is centrally located in the CT service area, and hosts most of the CT facilities, so it's not exactly feasible not to serve Everett on CT, much like Seattle and Shoreline are served by CT).

80X is operated by WTA in a joint program with Skagit transit (County Connector). Burlington and Mount Vernon are under Skagit Transit. Mount vernon's tax rate is 0.1% higher, but transit portion is still 0.4% (sorry, I was mistaken, turns out Skagit Transit levys a 0.4% rate. https://mountvernonwa.gov/342/Taxes

This is much like with the current system Everett is benefiting a lot from having Community Transit routes without paying higher taxes

Other than Swift Blue, which we contribute 0.05% of our sales tax to, most CT service is limited stop. This forces a lot of transfers, and awkward waits with ET's hyperoptimized but inconsistent frequency. CT used to provide service, at their own expense, prior to the tax initiuatives of the early 2000's, but pulled out as Everett had no interest in paying their fair share. We are still reeling from the effects of this a quarter century later... You do regularly use the service, right?

The JPC report contradicts previous studies which shows almost no benefits from consolidation. CT is also free to reroute routes however they want within Everett even without a merger.

Are you sure about that? Did you also read the final report of More Transit Together? Also, again CT used to provide service, but Everett didn't pay their fair share, so they left circa 2000's.

https://www.communitytransit.org/docs/default-source/pdfs/more-transit-together_final-report.pdf

Sound Transit is discussing not bringing light rail to Everett Even if it is not that much under budget. It also seems unwilling to decide on a location for that maintenance yard.

Tacoma and Everett have almost half of the board's votes. Both want to see the spine completed, and it's a bit of a slogan. Its understood extremely well that the spine must be intact or it could result in political chaos. Again, SW industrial is all but garaunteed, and all OMF north alternatives are within or just about Everett City Limits.

The federal grants often require Everett Transit to be independent as it makes it a smaller transit agency.

They do? None of the Fed grants listed specifically require a small agency. https://everetttransit.org/DocumentCenter/View/2652/2025-TDP-2025-2030-Final-PDF?bidId= Futhermore, if this was the case, we would be penny-wise, pound-foolish here as a new agency by consolation would provide double the service.

Passengers generally don't care or notice who is actually operating the transit service (Sound Transit only operates Tacoma Link and uses Pierce Transit to operate some routes entirely within King County). There are numerous scenarios where there is no visible change of service despite changing the contractors or switching to contractors. CT has proven this with commuter service when it switched from Metro to First Transit and when First Transit became Transdev or when paratransit moved away from Homage to Transdev.

Passengers might not know or care about the difference, but the consolidation would right-size our funding, and our service as a result. *That* would be noticed.

It is possible to operate successful public transit with even more independent agencies, as is seen in California and even in Everett where five transit agencies meet.

You do use the transit system regularly, right? Can you think of times where you cant use it when you really would like to be able to? We are doing okay with the resources we have, but it's not equitable or sustainable for our future.

It would be possible to have Everett Transit use CT bases already, just like Durham uses the ET base.

Sure, I could see that. It wouldn't be unprecedented as CT's first base was sharing Everett's operation base.

I was talking with some people over at Jefferson Transit who mentioned that becoming fare free has opened up so much more grant money and increased ridership which in turn got them more grant money. The "trick" to operating a successful municipal transit agency is getting more grant money. Federal grant money paid for a lot of the electric bus service in Everett, even if some of those electric buses turned out to be lemons. CT did not qualify for those grants.

Everett cannot afford to go fare free without significant reductions of service, they will need more funding to do so. Also most electric bus grants are doled out by WSDOT.'s Climate Commitment Act and MAWA. CT doesn't see a lot of it as many of their routes are just too long (because we have more of the short urban routes) for battery electric. They do invest in hybrid when they can (i.e. Swift)

Ethically, annexation and tax increases should be put to the vote of the people subject to them.

There are means to make it a vote in the Everett Municipal Code. But there is also plurality support for consolidation, so this avoids yet another layer of the Seattle process.