Spending picks up in C-Tran campaign

Proposition 1 would boost C-Tran’s local sales tax rate by 0.2 percentage points, from 0.5 to 0.7 percent. That’s a difference of 2 cents on every $10 purchase for consumers.

PUSHING FOR A YES VOTE

Keep Clark County Moving reports total contributions of $93,561.05 since January, spending $84,948.58 so far in favor of C-Tran’s Proposition 1.

PUSHING FOR A NO VOTE

NoTolls,com and Save Our City have spent a combined $12,736.91 campaigning against Proposition 1. The two groups have also spent money supporting several local races and candidates.

The political action committee campaigning in favor of C-Tran’s Proposition 1 is closing in on $100,000 in total contributions, keeping pace with this year’s big-spending local elections in Clark County.

Keep Clark County Moving — which has spent most of the money flowing into the campaign around C-Tran’s proposed sales tax increase — has collected nearly $94,000 since January, according to Public Disclosure Commission filings. The group had spent close to $85,000 of that as of Oct. 31.

The group lists dozens of individual contributors, but has been buoyed by several large donations.

Among the biggest donors: California-based bus manufacturer Gillig ($10,000); Vancouver resident Ed Lynch ($7,500 over four donations); Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 ($5,000), which represents C-Tran bus drivers and other employees; and Waste Connections, Inc. ($5,000). The ATU Legislative Council of Olympia also kicked in $3,000, and Columbia River Crossing consultant David Evans & Associates donated $2,500 in March, records show.

Those gifts didn’t happen by accident. Keep Clark County Moving Chairman Tim Schauer said the group had been in contact with those contributors before the donations arrived. The amounts of some of them, however, weren’t always expected, he said.

“We were pleasantly surprised at the level of support,” Schauer said.

Proposition 1 would raise C-Tran’s local sales tax by 0.2 percentage points to pay for existing bus service. Agency leaders have said the extra revenue — an estimated $8 million to $9 million — would be needed to stave off major service cuts when available reserves run dry in 2013. Opponents have questioned C-Tran’s efficiency, and said the agency needs to rethink its priorities before coming to voters with a proposed tax hike.

Though it did most of the organized campaigning for months, Keep Clark County Moving has stepped up its spending in recent weeks as opponents have campaigned more aggressively. Two other groups, NoTolls.com and Save Our City, have together now spent more than $12,000 against Proposition 1, records show. Much of that has gone toward yard signs and television ads. Both of those PACs, funded largely by Vancouver businessman David Madore, have also spent money on local city council races.

Keep Clark County Moving’s single-biggest expenditure went to Seattle-based EMC Research, which was paid $12,000 in March for polling related to Proposition 1, Schauer said. Schauer has previously declined to offer specifics on that poll, but said it provided valuable information for the committee early on. The group spent nearly $30,000 in October on mailings alone, and has also used yard signs, robocalls and volunteers to push the measure.

Supporters didn’t have any fundraising expectations going into the campaign, Schauer said. This year’s total far outpaces the $28,000 raised for C-Tran’s last sales tax measure, passed in 2005. But that campaign took place in a much shorter time, said Keep Clark County Moving treasurer Heather Stuart, who helped with both efforts. The 2005 version came on the heels of an unsuccessful effort in 2004.

Ballots for this year’s races were sent out in October. They must be turned in or post-marked by Nov. 8.

Eric Florip: 360-735-4541; www.twitter.com/col_enviro; eric.florip@columbian.com.