Tax You, Tax Them, Tax Everyone Else

To help “close a budget gap,” Washington Metro is scheduled to raise fares and cut service later this month. The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents 88 percent of Metro’s employees, calls this the “pay more, get less” plan.

In response, the union issued its own plan to cut fares and increase service. It could have called this the “pay less, get more” plan, but instead it called it “fund it, fix it, make it fair.” The union didn’t originate this slogan; instead, it seems to be a mantra for the “transit justice” community, which seems to believe that, because a few low-income people ride transit, everyone should be subsidized.

For the “fund it” part of the plan, the union calls for the creation of assessment districts that would pay fees–not taxes–to help run the system. The union plan tries to imply that only the wealthy owners of properties whose values are enhanced by the transit system would have to pay, but when an assessment district was created to fund construction of the Silver Line, owners of properties miles away from any transit station were forced to pay as much as those next door to a station.

Metro bus lines blanket the area, so who would be exempt from being in an assessment district? Click image for a larger view.

Low-income people wouldn’t have to pay this assessment, the union maintains, only “wealthier property owners.” After all, no poor people in the Washington DC area rent their homes from property owners who would be so unscrupulous as to pass the assessments onto their renters, right?

On the other hand, because this is an assessment, not a tax, “non-profits” as well as for-profit organizations would have to pay it, admits the union. The largest non-profit in the district is also known as the federal government. But where is the federal government going to get the money to pay these assessments? You guessed it.

A major problem is that assessment districts are supposed to charge fees based on the increase in property values created by the improvements that the tax will fund. Although transit advocates often claim that transit increases property values, the Antiplanner is skeptical that this increase is sufficient to raise the billions of dollars that Metro needs to fix the system.

The union doesn’t estimate how much the assessments would have to be to cover Metro’s budget gap. However, it clearly believes that they won’t be enough because it also suggests a rental car tax. Is this because car renters benefit from the Metro system? No, it’s because most renters are from out of the area and so don’t get a vote on their tax rates.

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Really, what the union plan comes down to is taxes, other taxes, and more taxes. It justifies these taxes by claiming that transit is a public good, but it’s not. Wikipedia says something is a public good when “individuals cannot be effectively excluded from use and where use by one individual does not reduce availability to others.” While that definition might fit national defense and possibly police protection, it is easy to exclude people from transit use and use by enough people does reduce availability to others. With the help of groups like local 689, the transit industry has built up a mystique that is completely unjustified.

In another report, the union has also criticized Metro’s plan to contract out some of its activities by saying that “private sector control of public transit” has led to disasters. The two examples it gives are the H Street streetcar and Washington’s downtown circulator buses.

The streetcar was planned by the city of Washington with the help of engineering firms–which is nothing new; all rail projects are planned with the help of such firms. Then DC hired a construction company to build it–that’s nothing new, as no transit agencies build rail projects themselves. Then DC hired an operating firm to operate. That’s not unprecedented; most transit agencies operate their own railcars and buses, but some contract them out, which the unions hate.

The issue here is that the H Street streetcar suffered huge cost overruns and design problems, but–contrary to the union’s implications–those problems were not the fault of the company hired to operate it. Simply hiring someone to perform a service that would otherwise be performed by union workers doesn’t automatically lead to disaster.

This can be seen by looking at the downtown circulator, which–unlike most Metro bus service–is also contracted out. The union tried to make it appear that this service is unreliable due to the contractor, but the trains and buses operated by Metro are hardly a paragon of reliability. What the union leaves out is that operating and maintaining the contracted-out buses costs only 70 percent as much per vehicle revenue mile as the buses Metro operates itself. That doesn’t sound like much of a disaster.

The union plan comes down to layering taxes on taxes until everyone pays taxes to support more union jobs. In a Washington Post op-ed last week, the president of local 689, Jackie Jeter, defended this plan by urging the district to adopt “bold reforms” to save Metro. It certainly is bold to argue that taxpayers who get little or no benefit from Metro should pay for other people to ride it.

The Antiplanner’s own bold reforms are simple. Make the users pay. If the users aren’t willing to pay for trains, substitute buses. To save even more money, contract out the buses to private operators. Don’t make long-term investments because transit is going to be replaced by shared, driverless cars in a few years anyway. Unions hate these ideas because they don’t benefit. But transit should not be judged by the benefits it provides to its employees but by the benefits it provides to transportation users and whether those users are willing to pay the costs.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

7 Responses to Tax You, Tax Them, Tax Everyone Else

  1. OFP2003 says:

    “.. transit is going to be replaced by shared, driverless cars in a few years anyway. Unions hate these ideas because they don’t benefit. ..”
    .
    People….. PUULEEAASEEE…… who is going to maintain that fleet of driverless shared cars??? There’s going to be a whole new industry of “Maintainers”. I have an announcement, the corporate owners of fleets of driverless cars aren’t going to clean the cars themselves. Think it is demeaning to for you yourself to clean out cars??? Then hire someone to do it and start a company! Guess what, I bet I can negotiate better prices for gasoline if I represent a whole fleet of cars. After all isn’t that what all those ‘gas points’ deals are? OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND! for making money off a shared driverless car transit economy.

  2. prk166 says:


    On the other hand, because this is an assessment, not a tax, “non-profits” as well as for-profit organizations would have to pay it, admits the union.
    ” ~ Anti-planner

    If it walks like a duck, has feathers like a duck, quacks like a duck and poops like a duck, it’s a duck.

    If their proposed assessment is like others, it will be based on property values. The more the perceived value of the property, the more you pay That sure as heck sounds like a property tax, eh?

    The most nefarious part of this is that these assessments really hurt non-profits. $20k out of their pocket every year is $20k less they put into a program to help homeless families , help adults learn to read, et al. 1 in 5 children in this country go hungry and we’re bending over backwards to do what? Take money from those that try to mitigate and end it and give it to a bloated albatross? That’s not fair, nor wrong. That’s evil.

  3. prk166 says:

    I don’t know what the history of these special assessments. They make some sense. If a neighborhood is missing a sidewalk, you’d assess the property owners for part of that cost.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re at the start of the assessment thing popping up more and more. Not just in the transit community, but in cities in general.

    St. Paul MN is in the courts over a recent one of theirs. So far the courts have ruled it’s a tax, not an assessment.

    http://www.twincities.com/2016/08/24/st-paul-minnesota-right-of-way-taxes-supreme-court-rules-assessments/

    The charges are intended to cover street sweeping, snow plowing, car towing during snow emergencies, sanding, tree trimming, street-light maintenance, litter pick-up and alley sealing, among other routine street services.

    The churches argued that the right-of-way charge was not being applied uniformly because churches outside of downtown St. Paul are treated like residences and assessed far less per linear foot of street frontage.

    In response, city officials argued that downtown churches receive more services than neighborhood churches do, including street sweeping twice a week instead of twice a year.

    As such, the city called the charges a fee for service.

    St. Paul has maintained that because the capital city is home to so many government offices, schools and nonprofits, roughly a third of the city is off the tax rolls. Unable to levy property taxes, the city uses fees to recoup funds for necessary services such as snow plowing and street sweeping.

  4. CapitalistRoader says:

    “…who is going to maintain that fleet of driverless shared cars??? There’s going to be a whole new industry of “Maintainers”.”

    Agreed. Cars will need to be cleaned constantly but rush hours will be peak cleaning times. Students, stay-at-home parents, anyone looking to make decent money for an hour or three of work, within walking distance to their abode. I can see quick cleaning stations set up every few blocks in high traffic areas, ready to provide a 60-second interior cleaning. Like a pit crew. More thorough cleaning will be done in the wee hours of the morning, probably at further-flung locations. This Seattle bus rider will appreciate a nice, clean AV:

    Frasier: What happened? I went six months without replacing my pollen filter in my car, so it was in the shop. Couldn’t get a cab, so I took the bus home. Which splashed me! And I fell down, missed my stop, and had to walk home ten blocks in this downpour! It’s just been a rotten day. You don’t even know the topper — there was an enchanting young woman on the bus. Just when I’d worked up enough nerve to go and talk to her, I slipped on something that I can only hope was an old burrito!

    Frasier, “The Bad Son”, 31 October 2000

  5. NoDakNative says:

    “People….. PUULEEAASEEE…… who is going to maintain that fleet of driverless shared cars??? ”

    Cars are different than busses when it comes to maintenance.

    With large vehicles like busses with particular maintenance requirements, it’s cost effective to maintain a maintenance depot.

    With cars, like existing taxis, it’s usually cheaper to contract out the work to the independent shops as you need work done. Unions hate that because there isn’t one centralized workforce to unionize. As well as the fact that a shop that did unionize and jack their prices would be quickly dropped from servicing cars.

    Independent shops generally like these arrangements. Since the majority of car maintenance can be scheduled well in advance, they can have fleet owners bring in their vehicles during the slow times to keep the mechanics busy.

    With driverless cars this could be made even more efficient. A shop finds itself short of people needing oil changes and brake jobs on a particular day. They enter into their computer that they have openings and the ride share companies system tells the car that is due for an oil change or brake job to go to that mechanic. If business suddenly picks up, that availability can be canceled and no more cars will get sent.

  6. LazyReader says:

    Infrastructure plans should have a golden rule. NO spending on any new infrastructure until whatever current systems they have are repaired. Since DC’s Redline will never be repaired, we’ll never have to worry about DC ever spending money on rail ever again. Silicon Valley has already rendered rail transit obsolete ironically not with anything particularly high tech, a simple solution they shuttle their employees for free.

    One thing is for sure, if Trump succeeds in Draining the Swamp the massive layoff of federal workers means a decline in Metrorail passengers since for the most part it was designed to expensively shuttle federal workers to and from DC. The Metrorail was built for two reasons, shuttling federal bureaucrats unimportant enough to warrant a limousine. And bicentennial pride. Some pride, 40 years later Metrorail is the ugliest fucking installation ever made. https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/B7qrlsnIa468SRQxepp4gHzKR-g=/46×0:755×532/1400×1050/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/54005835/800px-Pentagon_City_Metro_Station_DC_12_2011_00062.0.jpeg

    Meanwhile the communists made the most beautiful subway ever made.
    http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160316153821-moscow-metro-stations-david-burdeny-arbatskaya-super-169.jpg
    I guess when you threaten artists with gulags they’ll do anything on budget. Gotta hand it to the russians they really knew how to patron the arts, the US not so much, we got crucifixes submerged in urine.

  7. the highwayman says:

    Yet you teahadi’s want to make humanity obsolete. Robots could maintain themselves. :$

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