Dooley proposal would benefit Metro, roads
Both Metro and St. Louis County roads would benefit if voters approve a half-cent increase in the transit sales tax, County Executive Charlie Dooley said Tuesday.
County officials have not definitely set the election date on the proposal, but voters are likely to consider it on Nov. 4. The county council must put the proposal on the ballot.
Under state law, all revenue from the transit tax must go for public transportation. Dooley would use money from an existing half-cent transportation sales tax for the roads part of his proposal.
Here’s how it would work:
> Half the money from the tax increase – initially about $40 million a year – would go to operate Metro. The transit agency would continue to receive revenue from the current one-fourth cent transit sales tax.
> The other half of revenue from the tax increase, also about $40 million a year, would help pay for MetroLink expansion.
> The county each year would adjust the shares of revenue from the transportation sales tax that would go to Metro and to county arterial roads, such as Aubuchon, Baumgartner and Hanley roads. The shares for Metro and arterial roads would vary with the needs of a particular year.
The county estimates that this year about $49.2 million would go to Metro and $32.4 million to arterial roads. In Metro’s fiscal year that begins July 1, Dooley plans to reduce Metro’s share of the transportation tax by about $8 million compared with this year.
The county’s fiscal year starts Jan. 1, complicating budgeting of the transportation sales tax money. If voters approve the transit tax increase, Dooley’s proposal would take effect in Metro’s fiscal year that starts July 1, 2009.
The county no longer can sustain Metro and its arterial roads under current arrangements, Dooley said. Had they continued, Metro would have received in the year starting July 1 about $50 million of the nearly $80 million available in the transportation sales tax, he said. “We can’t afford that any more,” he said.
The county, he said, has an obligation to residents to keep up its roads.
And Garry Earls, the county’s chief operating officer, warned: “we can’t let Metro and roads fail simultaneously.”
Dooley and Earls both noted buses depend on county roads to operate and provide good service.
The half-cent transportation sales tax was one of the few ever imposed without a vote of the people. The Legislature established it in 1973 in St. Louis and St. Louis County when the bus system was in a severe financial crisis. It provided a subsidy to operate the system and helped pay for upgrading the system’s aging buses and other equipment.
St. Louis always has used the revenue from the tax to subsidize Metro. Almost from the beginning, the county split the money between transit and highways. Officials of the Bi-State Development Agency – it then used its official name – asserted in the 1970s that all the county’s revenue from the transportation tax should go for transit. By 1980, Metro clearly lost the argument and use of the tax for roads is a settled issue.
One factor in the 1970s: most bus service was in St. Louis, while the county generated most of the money. Parts of the county, particularly its most western and southern areas, are far from a bus route.
For many years, the county provided no more than twice the subsidy of St. Louis. In 2000, the late County Executive George “Buzz” Westfall changed the formula. The county would provide the same amount as in 2000 with a yearly cost of living adjustment.
Earls, who served in the Westfall administration, said officials then assumed that revenue from the tax would increase at or more than the rate of inflation, keeping the shares of money for transit and roads in balance. But tax revenue grew slowly and Metro’s share increased.
Dooley and Earls said tax increment financing, almost entirely for shopping centers in municipalities, was a major factor. Much of the sales tax revenue generated by the new development helps retire bonds that paid for part of the construction of the shopping centers.
Dooley said the county would have received about $25 million in additional half-cent transportation sales tax money from 2003 through 2007 without a diversion to tax increment financing.
The county needs to improve access to Clayton for the heavy stream of traffic from south St. Louis County, Dooley said. The county would have to improve Hanley and other county roads so they can better handle the traffic, he said.
Recently, Dooley’s administration floated a proposal for using $5 million a year for 10 years from the transportation sales tax. Under that proposal, the money would become available if voters approved transit sales tax increase. The county’s Blue Ribbon Commission received the proposal at a meeting May 6. It will not make recommendations until this summer.
The $50 million would part of the financing for $148.4 million in transportation projects the staff suggests. Among the projects, improvement of Hanley Road at Eager and Manchester roads, the connection of an extension of Highway 141 at Olive Boulevard to an extension of the Maryland Heights Expressway and improvements to the interchange of Dorsett Road and Interstate 270 and the intersection of Charbonier, Howdershell and Shackelford roads.
Dooley persuaded the county council to put the half-cent tax increase on the ballot with the presidential primary in February, but he withdrew the proposal after Metro lost a lawsuit related to building a MetroLink extension from Forest Park to Shrewsbury and Larry Salci, the head of the agency, resigned.
Dooley is looking toward putting the proposal on the November ballot, but said he not made a final decision.
Nationally, transit proposals fare best in presidential elections which draw a very large voter turnout.
Metro declined to comment.
Tieing the diversion of $50M to road construction to the proposed 1/2 cent transit tax sound like a good way to generate support for the new tax from both transit and road interests.
I wonder how this can be guaranteed. All of the current transportation tax could be diverted to roads any time. If the new transit tax passes, the county may decide to use all of the 1/4 cent tax for roads, not just the $5M per year extra.
What a joke! So, the “Dooley” plan is to give ANOTHER $80 MILLION a year to METRO to waste on another Metrolink extension that will be 3 years late and $20 million over budget! I bet the consultants and lawyers are making advanced reservations for up $200 lunches, $600 a night hotel rooms and preparing their 80/hour one day billings! Why didn’t Dooley demand a state audit 3 years ago?
Seriously, do we really need to give METRO ANTOHTER $80 MILLION? BTW….. The County Police Department Budget for 2008 is only $80 million. If this tax passes, METRO will be getting a total of $160 MILLION from St. Louis County tax payers. $160 million a year would fix many more roads than $9 million will. I will not vote for one more penny for METRO until the State Audit is done and METRO has shown that they are responsible stewards of the $80 million they are already getting from my pocket!
Here we go again … Charlie Dooley working to package another tax increase in the most palatable way, and of course, Civic Progress and the construction companies getting their checkbooks ready for another big dollar campaign. And this time, they’ll probably call it “Proposition R” for roads instead of “Proposition M” for Metro, since so many people realize what a money pit Metro is.
What a pack of lies! Earls says “We can’t let Metro and roads fail simultaneously.” But in fact, neither of them are failing. In fact, the closing of highway 40, which was supposed to bring chaos and gridlock, has had virtually no impact. And aside from the fact that they are going broke because of their foolish expansion of Metrolink, there’s no failure at Metro either.
It doesn’t matter what they call this proposal - it means higher taxes for us, and more money for Dooley’s buddies in the construction industry. Get informed and get involved - be a regular visitor to stoptheprop.com.
Wow! It never seems to surprise me how backwards some of the people in St. Louis are. Metrolink is one of the most successful light rail systems in America and we have higher ridership than both Dallas and Houston, who boast metropolitan areas twice our size. I will vote for this proposition, its not like this tax is going to throw me into debt. We wasted money on that stupid highway expansion (that was not need), why not this? Seriously guys….we cant shut down the chance to have a more public transportation and then wonder why people consider St. Louis a cowtown and don’t move their fortune 500 companies here.
Joshua
6:58 pm May 14th, 2008
Backward? How is demanding accountability for tax dollars “Backward”? You may be willing to blindly give your tax dollars to an organization that has a very questionable history of responsibly using the resources that they already have. Giving them an additional amount of money – equal to the entire County Police Department Budget – without having results of the State Audit is just plain ludicrous.
BTHW…. the money spent on Highway 40 was FEDRAL dollars that could not be used to fund mass transit. The money going to METRO comes directly from my pocket every time I purchase groceries, buy clothes and adjust my thermostat. For every $100 of these items I purchase, I will pay an extra $1 to METRO. This “Backward” citizen wants to know if his $1 is being spent for fuel, buses, and train cars or if it is going for $100 lunches and $600 a night hotel rooms for fat cat consultants feeding at the public trough. If that is “Backward” then, so be it!
When people talk about Metro’s mistakes in spending money, they never seem to take note whether MODOT has been a good steward of our transportation money. We can’t stop supporting transit just because some mistakes were made or some money was misspent. Hasn’t MODOT ever misspent money? Do we want to stop building and repairing bridges and roads just because MODOT may have made some mistakes? Transit is too important to hold it hostage to the errors of those who are now resigned.
Alright, are we done talking about hotel rooms and lunches? Good, because we in St. Louis need to have a serious discussion about supporting public transportation. Gas is nearly $4 a gallon, and rising. Federal funding for highways is nearly dried up. The U.S. emits nearly HALF of the entire world’s automotive carbon dioxide emissions. But thankfully most of the people that I know don’t want to have a conversation about hotel rooms and lunches. We want to know how and when we can expand MetroLink because we can’t afford to drive our cars, we don’t want our friends and future children to go to war with other countries over oil and other resources, and we don’t want to see our great city slide into decline because we didn’t do some serious sustainable planning for our economic and environmental future. Even Chicago is…and I will not be beat out by a bunch of Cubs fans!!!
We need to preserve our roads and support and expand public transportation. I think it’s a real matter of civic pride. Instead of complaining, we should be demanding that the region, with a lot of public input, draft an environmental agenda that includes a real committment to public transportation, methods to ease congestion through traffic mitigation, and other means of air quality control.
I’m tired of the same old gadfly cries. I want some real grassroots movements in St. Louis to make this a healthier, more sustainable city so my kids can live and work and watch Cardinals games same as I can.