SierraScape October - November 2008
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by Ginger Harris
Transportation and Smart Growth Chair

As predicted in January of this year, St. Louis County has decided to put Proposition M – for Metro transit funding – on the November 4th ballot, asking voters to raise the county transit tax by half a cent.

Half of this new tax (a quarter cent) is needed to continue the current level of transit service–buses, light rail and demand-responsive vans–the cost of which has risen as fuel costs and demand have increased. This quarter cent will also do "double duty" by triggering collection of the quarter cent sales tax in St. Louis City that City voters passed, but County voters failed to pass, in 1997. In that year each jurisdiction's quarter cent was made contingent on passage in the other jurisdiction.

The other half of the county's new half-cent tax would be used to expand the transit system. That expansion might include a light rail extension to the Westport Plaza area.

The entire new half cent would sunset in 20 years.

The current transit sales taxes–the original half-cent "transportation sales tax" enacted in 1972, plus the quarter-cent sales tax for Metro transit service expansion that City and County voters approved in 1994–go directly to the City and County governments, not to the Metro transit agency.

The City appropriates both the 1972 half cent plus the 1994 quarter-cent entirely to Metro transit. If Prop M passes in the County on November 4, that would trigger collection of the additional quarter cent tax City voters passed in 1997, and the City would begin collecting a total of one percent in sales taxes for transit.

St. Louis County currently appropriates about half of the original 1972 half cent to County roads, and would continue to do so. Thus, if Prop M passes in the County in November, the County would effectively begin providing the same one cent level of sales tax support for transit: half of the 1972 half cent, plus the 1994 quarter cent, and the 2008 half cent.

Other metro areas already provide at least this much local subsidy to their transit agencies, e.g. Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, and Houston.

A new "Transit Alliance" made up of civic organizations and civic-minded corporations plans to reach out to current and potential transit riders to remind them of the benefits they will reap by passing this sales tax. Their website "MoreMetrolink.com" makes the following arguments:

• It is estimated that this additional half-cent sales tax will cost the average St. Louis County family $50 per year.
• The American Auto Association (AAA) estimates that if a family can give up one car by using transit for some trips, it would save an average of $7,500 per year, quite a benefit compared to the $50 investment in taxes.
• Likewise, the American Public Transportation Association estimates that the average commuter drives 20 miles per day, so would save an average of $2,000 per year by switching to transit.
• If the County's new half cent transit tax expands transit service rather than cutting it, more families would be able to do without one of their cars, and more commuters could switch to transit. With the high price of gasoline, more families are considering taking transit.

A second new group, "Citizens for Better Transportation," will remind the general public why this tax increase is needed:

• to help make the St. Louis metropolitan area more economically competitive.
• to help reduce traffic congestion. (If the 70,000 St. Louisans who now ride MetroLink each day had to switch to cars, our roads and highways would be noticeably more congested.)
• to reduce pollution and thus help alleviate asthma. (It would also alleviate other harmful effects, including possible federal sanctions for more severe air pollution.)
• to make up for the effect of inflation on Metro transit agency's budget. (If this tax does not pass, Metro will have to cut $45 million of service per year.)

The Sierra Club supports Proposition M for environmental reasons:

• to get more people out of their cars and on alternatives like transit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• to meet the growing demand for public transit service, thereby encouraging more sustainable life styles.