The King County Council has voted to postpone a portion of planned cuts to King County Metro Transit bus service — at least for now.
In a 5-to-4 vote, the council on Monday decided to delay three of the four planned rounds of service cuts.
The decision does not affect the first round of cuts planned for this September; all three of the postponed reductions were slated to take effect in 2015, in February, June and September.
The move comes after the council received new projections on county sales tax revenue. Supporters argued a delay would provide time for an outside audit of Metro as well as an exploration of a variety of cost-saving measures. These include everything from additional fare hikes to seeking financing for scheduled maintenance of electric buses.
The dissenting votes came from council members Dave Upthegrove, Larry Phillips, Larry Gossett and Joe McDermott, who said the revenue projections are not sufficiently reliable.
Council member Rod Dembowski, who sponsored the measure, called the criticism unfair.
