Metro Transit, one of the main public transport systems available in Seattle and its suburbs, has announced far-reaching cuts to service announcing plans to eliminate one third of the routes and reduce services on another third, if a projected funding shortfall of $75 million is not met. Metro depends on sales taxes for 60 percent of its operating income, and obtains the rest from fares paid by passengers. From 2008 through 2015, a drop in sales tax revenue has projected a revenue shortfall of $1.2 billion. $750 million of this gap has already been closed by service cuts, increasing fares by 80 percent over four years, using property taxes, coupled with lowering wages and benefits of metro employees.
Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond referred briefly to the support given by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) in these efforts in pushing through a concessions contract on transit workers. In November 2010, the ATU agreed to a three-year contract in which transit workers received no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the first year, effectively freezing their wages. In the next two years, drivers were given below-inflation raises of 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent respectively. Whereas the previous contract had secured a 3 percent floor on the COLA based on local inflation, the 2010 contract has a 0.0 percent floor, which means the wages cannot be decreased, but may not increase either.
The contract also allowed part-time operators to do more overtime work than their full-time counterparts, for which they would be paid less. ATU Local 587 President Paul Batchel was quoted as conceding that the agreement means “fewer employees working longer hours” with “fewer benefits packages being purchased.” There was a reduction of 100 staff positions following this concessions contract.
The attack on public transit is part and parcel of the ongoing destruction of public institutions that provide basic services to working people, in the process shifting untold billions of dollars into the pockets of the rich.
The city’s claim that “there is no money to be found” to fund transit and other vital social services rings hollow when the state of Washington is home to eight billionaires on the Forbes 400 list. This includes Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Steve Ballmer and Paul Allen. The combined wealth of these four individuals alone is a staggering $120 billion.
According to a report by Citizens for Tax Justice & the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Boeing, the airline manufacturing giant based in Washington state, having made $9.7 billion in profits over the 2008-2010 period, actually got a tax refund of $178 million from the IRS over the same period. Another report by Citizens for Tax Justice concludes that Boeing avoided $6 billion in taxes in 2008-2011.
Makes one wonder at what point a union crosses that line that simply makes it another management tool to force workers to accept less.
Well, public transit serves all income levels. There obviously isn't a return on the fare box for this transit agency. Maybe, the city is not planned well enough to have transit accessible to housing. Maybe, the State can implement a change in its tax structure that is more progressive, but lets not blame people who have been successful in their lives.
ReplyDeleteThis is a variety of Republican Party doctrine of "Don't punish the rich" and a favorite of the Kock brothers and their attack on democracy. Let's take a look at some facts about income distribution in the US. In 1985, THE FORBES 400 were worth $221 billion combined. Today, they’re worth $1.13 trillion—more than the GDP of Canada. Well there have been few additions to the Forbes 400 since then median household income has also stagnated—at around $44,000. Since 2005 there were 9 million American millionaires, a 62% increase since 2002. In 2005, 25.7 million Americans received food stamps, a 49% increase since 2000. Adjusted for inflation the federal minimum wage has fallen 42% since its peak in 1968. If the $5.15 HOURLY minimum wage had risen at the same rate as CEO compensation since 1990, it would now stand at $23.03. And consider this fact; a minimum wage employee who works 40 hours a week for 51 weeks a year goes home with $10,506 before taxes, but the same worker would take 7,000 years to earn Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s yearly compensation. Corporations spend 10% of their earnings compensating their top 5 executives. The 1,730 Board members of the nation’s 1,000 leading companies sit on the boards of 4 or more other corporations—including half of Coca-Cola’s 14-person board. UNITED has cut the pensions and salaries of most employees but promised 400 top executives 8% of the shares it expects to issue upon emerging from bankruptcy, while UNITED’S top 8 execs will also get a bonus of between 55% and 100% of their salaries. IN 2002, “turnaround artist” Robert Miller dumped Bethlehem Steel’s pension obligation, allowing “vulture investor” Wilbur L. Ross to buy steel stock and sell it at a 1,000% profit. This is the real story of how "successful people" make their money.
Delete1 in 4 U.S. jobs pay less than a poverty-level income. During the 1980s, 13% of Americans age 40 to 50 spent at least one year below the poverty line; by the 1990s, 36% did. Since 2000, the number of Americans living below the poverty line at any one time has steadily risen. Now 13% of all Americans—37 million—are officially poor.
Among households worth less than $13,500, their average net worth in 2001 was $0. By 2004, it was down to –$1,400. Bush’s tax cuts (extended until 2010) save those earning between $20,000 and $30,000 an average of $10 a year, while those earning $1 million are saved $42,700.
Among the working poor, 13% of income is spent on commuting if public transportation is used, 21% if a private vehicle is used. Workers who earn $45,000 or more spend 2% of their income on commuting.