I am a taxpayer in St. Louis County. According to the news, in November I will be voting on a proposed tax increase for Metro to cover its funding shortfall. Before I would vote in favor of any more of my money going to Metro I would insist on several things.
The former head of the agency was removed after he tried to hide mismanagement of the Shrewsbury Metrolink Extension project by suing the construction firms to cover the cost overruns. Replacing him was the same as bolting a new pilothouse on a rotten ship hull. Who in Metro management advised him? Are they still there? Where was his legal staff? Why wasn’t the commission overseeing what he was doing both during the project and after he filed the lawsuit? The court decision was so overwhelmingly against Metro I have trouble believing that no one could have foreseen the disaster. If he was able to ram through his lawsuit far enough to run up $21 million in fees why is one appointee given this much discretion? I want to see changes in the commission and in how it operates. I want to see changes also in the staff and operation of the agency.
A Post Disgrace editorial stated recently that approval of the County tax would trigger a subsidy from the Federal Government and that the State of Missouri needed to step up with some money. Both of these bodies get their money from taxes on people such as myself. There is also a provision that additional City tax money will be flow from the approval. I’ve lived in Missouri long enough to know that our legislature doesn’t give money freely. If the County tax revenue along with the resulting Federal and City money covers the shortfall there won’t be any State money. That is reality. My point here is that I want to know what the State appropriation is before I would vote “yes.”
I would insist on more efficiency in Metro operations. I see empty Metrolink trains pass by me every time I drive near the airport or cross under the Shrewsbury line. I see numerous full-size busses running with few passengers. I see too many empty busses to believe that the routes and schedules are properly planned.
I rode the bus system for many years. It was Bi-State then. The busses were dirty and schedules were pieces of paper. Customer Service meant that the customer existed to serve the system. Has this attitude been fixed? Does anyone in Metro management ever actually ride their own system?
Finally, I insist that the system live by the fare box. I know that no mass transportation system in the country operates solely on the money it collects from riders. I do insist that any subsidy be based on the number of riders. The tax I would support would be something like this. In 2007 St. Louis County funded Metro with $41.5 million. The number of riders in Missouri that year was close to 47 million. On a pro rata basis, the county paid roughly 90 cents in subsidy for every rider. If the subsidy were pro rated this way Metro would get additional money only by attracting more riders-not by demands and threats. (By the way the 47 million number is for riders in the state of Missouri-not the County only. Metro’s on line statistics do not show the breakdown between the City and County. So the cost per County rider is higher than 90 cents. The fare subsidy is probably more than what the rider pays at the box.) I believe this would give the agency incentive to be more efficient, more customer friendly, and better managed.

Okay ever since I moved here in Saint Louis this has to be the most annoying thing. Why does Missouri decided to do construction all over the place at the same time instead of working on one big job at a time? I mean they closed the highway down so you think oh okay I can just take the back roads just to find that almost all of them are blocked for something being gone their as well. I mean come on Missouri when did the state lose Common Sense?