At a special Aug. 12 meeting of the Seattle City Council Transportation Committee, Metro Director of Operations Kevin Desmond laid out the budgetary nightmare facing Metro and King County Executive Kurt Triplett's plan to deal with it.

As the economic recession continues, Metro is facing a substantial sales tax loss of 12 to 13 percent this year, Desmond said. Metro receives approximately 70 percent of its operating budget from the sales tax, he said.

Metro will have to deal with a predicted $104 million revenue gap in 2009 and projected gaps of $98 million and $115 million in 2010 and 2011 respectively, he said.

Triplett has devised a nine point plan for Metro, which is run by King County, that was presented by Desmond at the meeting.

The first point of the plan is to defer bus service expansion. This does not include the planned RapidRide service enhancements. However,
due to construction of the bored tunnel on First Avenue, the RapidRide line C, which will service West Seattle, has already been delayed one year and is now planning to begin in September of 2012.

Under the plan, there will also be capital program cuts that will mostly take the form of purchasing fewer buses.

Another part of the plan is to reallocate some property tax funds from the King County Ferry District and the King County Automated Fingerprint Identification System to fund the implementation of RapidRide.

Metro users can expect fare increases as part of Triplett's plan. There is an approved 25 cent fare increase coming in January 2010 and a second 25 cent increase proposed for 2011.

Metro is currently undergoing a performance audit approved by the King County Council. The results of which will be released in September and incorporated into Triplett's plan.

The final point of the plan is the one that will most directly affect riders.

Metro will suspend 310,000 bus service hours, nine percent of its current program, by the end of 2011. By the end of 2013, it will have suspended 585,000 service hours.

"We're cutting to the bone quite frankly," Desmond said.

Desmond said no routes will be eliminated, simply reduced.

Metro is referring to the cuts as suspensions so that the routes can be returned at past levels and not at the 40-40-20 operating agreement, which gives the Seattle area 20 percent of any new service, he said.

Desmond said Metro would like to reduce every route across the county by the same proportion. That could mean less frequent buses for important routes and days without service for less important routes, he said.

Metro will look at productivity within each route to decide how to make cuts, he said.

Triplett said he is already seeing some Seattle versus the suburbs energy when it comes to Metro cuts. He said he hopes to limit that with his plan.