The midterms are (finally) over, and though the last absentee ballots are still trickling in here and there, most of the winners and losers are firmly decided.
There’s good news if your favorite initiative, bond or ballot measure falls into the latter category — but the end of an election cycle doesn’t have to mean the end of the discussion. A loss is not the end of the road for measures such as the Home Rule Charter and Twin Transit expansion, but an opportunity to fix the problems that led voters to say “no.”
In the case of the Home Rule Charter, we at The Chronicle hope One Lewis County and supporters of the measure quickly begin rebuilding momentum. They must start gathering signatures soon if they want to place the measure on next year’s general election ballot.
The charter vote — which would have allowed 15 freeholders to draft a new county constitution — lost with 55 percent of voters saying “no,” and because it only needs a simple majority to get freeholders to work, that means One Lewis County only has to change about 5 percent of voters’ minds. It’s not, by any means, an insurmountable goal.
The measure was on the right track, but got derailed over the infamous freeholder subdistricts. One Lewis County threw its resources not into promoting the measure, but instead into a court battle to stop the vote after raising concerns about the constitutionality of the sub-districts, created by the Lewis County Board of Commissioners.
Unfortunately for One Lewis County, a Thurston County judge sided with the commissioners and the home rule charter stayed on the ballot. The result was a lot of confusion, frustration and misinformation, right as voters got their ballots.
One Lewis County has a lot of work to do in the next year to revitalize this effort, but we urge them to start again as soon as possible. We still believe, wholeheartedly, that the Home Rule Charter process is right for Lewis County.
A proposal to expand Twin Transit’s coverage area and taxing district throughout the county (except Napavine) also suffered a resounding failure. The proposal, which we urged voters to reject, would have added a two-tenths of one percent sales tax to fund expanded bus routes, and failed with 65 percent of voters saying “no.”
While we had serious reservations about the details of Twin Transit’s planned expansion, we aren’t against expanded public transportation on principle. We agree that public transportation can help low-income residents get to jobs, students get to class and the elderly stay connected to their community, but Twin Transit’s arguments just didn’t add up.
This is a chance for the board and administrative staff to start from scratch. We need a better estimate of how much revenue they reasonably expect to earn from rural Lewis County’s sales tax base, more concrete details about what form expansion would take and what new expenses would arise and, perhaps most importantly, accurate ridership numbers.
“I’m not talking about how many people get on and off the bus,” Twin Transit board member Chad Taylor told the Chronicle this week. “I’ve been frustrated by how we measure it; it’s deceiving, I think. We measure it by boardings, each time a person gets on and off a bus. When you look at Twin Transit, how many actual people is that? I think we need to go back and have a pretty open discussion about what we’re doing as an organization and what our plans are going forward.”
After all, how can you expect people to vote to expand a service if you can’t prove it’s in demand? Taylor also touched on another concern of The Chronicle’s — that the expansion in service area was designed to come along with a downtown Centralia transit center built out well beyond reasonable expectations for growth.
Also concerning was Twin Transit Manager Derrick Wojcik-Damers’ assertion that the depot would be built regardless of whether the taxing district’s expansion passed.
“(The new transit center) doesn’t have to be a Taj Mahal,” Taylor said. “We just have to be able to move people between destinations within our cities in an efficient way. … There’s no reason to expand transit just to say you’re expanding it. You have to have a reason.”
We absolutely agree. Twin Transit should start over and come back to voters with facts, numbers and a reasonable, modest plan for the future.
For inspiration, we suggest Twin Transit looks to the south — to the Toledo School District. It took years, and nearly a half a dozen tries, but Toledo students will be getting a new high school thanks to the determination of the school board and collaboration with local legislators.
The Toledo bond’s passage shows what happens when a government entity is willing to listen to their constituents and think creatively to get the job done, and could be an inspiration to those still mourning election-day defeat.
