At a special meeting on Wednesday that took no public comment, the Spokane Transit Authority board of directors chose to ask voters within their service area to approve the renewal of the two-tenths of one percent sales tax through 2048. The addition of the expiration date was a last-minute change that came after eleventh-hour private lobbying efforts from business interest groups.
For weeks, members of the public lobbied the Spokane Transit Authority (STA) board of directors. They all wanted one thing: renew the sales tax supporting transit operations as soon as possible, and do it without a sunset clause. Every single piece of feedback the board received, from more than 80 different people, asked the agency to renew the tax, according to meeting minutes from March 19.
Not one person was opposed, a rarity in local government…