The wheels on the buses will stop going round and round Mukilteo on Sundays and holidays beginning June 13, due to a significant budget shortfall at Community Transit.

Thursday, the five-member Community Transit board - including Mukilteo Mayor Joe Marine - unanimously voted to suspend Sunday and holiday service, and to impose a 25-cent fare increase for local and paratransit routes, to help increase revenue.

"We did our best to avoid cutting service for two years, but we can no longer do that," board chair Dave Gossett said.

"We looked at every alternative to suspending Sunday and holiday service, but the other options were even more painful."

Gossett is also the chair of Snohomish County Council.

Several routes are eliminated as well, although CT spokesman Martin Munguia said those routes duplicate service, meaning no areas of coverage are eliminated.

As soon as funding is available, CT will bring back those services, he said.

That could be sooner than anticipated for some of the service cuts, if 21st District Rep. Marko Liias's proposal makes it through the Senate. It passed the House this week.

Liias proposes an amendment to SB 6774 that would allow organizations such as Community Transit the authority to ask voters to approve a vehicle license fee. Liias included wording assuring the fee would expire in June of 2015.

"I was heartbroken to read about the cuts that will be made in June," Liias said.  "Seniors and the disabled depend on this critical link to stay mobile, and I believe our community wants to keep our transit infrastructure intact."

If voters approve a $20 MVET fee, it would generate up to $7 million in revenue for CT, Manguia said, depending upon how the legislation is worded.

Some jurisdictions that either have or are creating a transportation district could be exempt from the fee, lowering the amount CT could collect.

However, Manguia cautioned, even the maximum wouldn't be enough to restore all of CT's service cuts, which total around $11 million in savings. Sunday and holiday service account for about $5 million of the shortfall, he said.

"While this legislation could help our riders a great deal, even if this bill passed and the board sent it to voters and the voters approved it, it would not offset all the cuts that are being made," Manguia said. "That is the extent our sales tax revenues are down."

Due to the timeline of writing the legislation and putting it before the voters, it won't happen soon enough to prevent June's elimination of Sunday and holiday service, Manguia said.

"Good transit benefits not just the people riding the bus or train," Liias said of his proposal.  "This is about reducing congestion and pollution, which makes our communities better places to live and work."

The fare increase applies to local and paratransit routes (not commuter routes and vanpools), which account for 60 to 65 percent of annual rides, Manguia said. CT expects to generate an additional $500,000. 

According to Manguia, CT saw roughtly 11.9 million riders in 2008 and about 11.3 million in 2009, for a 4-percent decrease.  Fewer people working in 2009 meant fewer riding the bus, he said.

Fare increases nearly always result in a drop in ridership, Manguia said.

"The rationale behind not increasing commuter and vanpool fares is that those two are already higher priced, and it was believed that raising their fares would result in a steeper drop in ridership," he said.