Ellington

Two pieces of legislation that aim to increase efforts to preserve the U-PASS program were passed in the ASUW Senate meeting last night.

Resolution 16-12 (R-16-12) articulates the ASUW’s support of the U-PASS program, while Legislative Directive 16-1 (LD-16-1), the first legislative directive of the current session, proposes that the ASUW lobbyist and Office of Government Relations (OGR) refocus efforts at the city and county level to advocate against proposed increases likely to affect U-PASS retention.

R-16-12 passed with 50 votes for, one against, and two abstentions. LD-16-1 passed with 56 votes for, one against, and three abstentions.

LD-16-1 also addresses concerns regarding potential discontinuance of bus routes that serve students and proposed increases to the fares on Seattle Metro Transit and their effect on the U-PASS costs to students.

Another specified concern was the possible doubling of the parking tax to 20 percent in order to fund the city’s financial obligation to the Alaskan Way viaduct. The increased tax would primarily benefit car commuters rather than public-transportation users and would divert the flow of funding meant for the U-PASS program.

“The way the [City of Seattle Commercial Parking] tax is structured now, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the UW to be made exempt, and so there would need to be action taken in order to make change,” said Josh Kavanagh, director of UW Transportation Services.

ASUW lobbyist Jono Hanks and OGR will argue that the UW parking fees have reason for exemption from the parking tax since they are largely not-for-profit and primarily fund the U-PASS program, which in turn benefits the city by decreasing traffic and environmentally harmful carbon-dioxide emissions.

“[The LD-16-1] gives our student lobbyists an explicit order to make the U-PASS a priority,” said ASUW Vice President Madeleine McKenna, who emphasized that this legislation would further define focus for the U-PASS program.

Reach contributing writer Kat Salazar at development@dailyuw.com.