More info on proposed car tab fee increase | Politics

King County residents may soon have to pay more money for car tabs.

There's a new proposal to increase the car tab fee by $20 in order to offset severe financial problems with the Metro bus system.

If the proposal doesn't pass, Metro Transit says it will have to reduce bus service by 17 percent - the equivalent of taking away every single bus off the street during the weekends.

But if the proposal does pass, it's going to cost drivers more money to register their cars. The extra $20 car tab fee would last two years, and King County says the money would go directly to Metro Transit.

Metro says it needs that revenue because they're facing a $60 million budget shortfall. If it doesn't get the money, Metro says it'll have to cut back on service and possibly eliminate some bus routes through the county.

King County Executive Dow Constantine, who is proposing the car tab fee, worries the result will be a traffic nightmare like nothing we've seen before.

"Our minimum estimate is that this cut would put four and half million commuters back into cars and back into traffic congestion per year," he said.

Constantine doesn't want to put the car tab fee to a public vote, because he says it will cost too much money to campaign for it. Instead, he's trying to get it passed with a vote by the King County Council.

The council needs a super-majority; six out of the nine council members would have to vote for the proposal in order to pass it without any public input. But the council's four Republican members have vowed to fight the proposal.