St. Louis County voters are likely to see a half-cent sales tax to help subsidize Metro’s MetroLink and buses on the ballot next April.

The transit system’s supporters agreed about a month ago to bring back the tax that lost Nov. 4 and have begun working on a campaign.

“It will be a difficult, hard effort, a more challenging campaign,” Mike Jones, senior policy advisor to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley, said today.

The deadline for the county council to put the proposal on the April 6 ballot is Jan. 26. But campaign work has to start early because of small turnouts in April elections, Jones said. The effort has to find supporters of the tax and get them to the polls to vote, he said.

“We have got to win. We have to overcome anything in the environment we can’t control,” Jones said.

The tax proposal is likely to be virtually the same as the one voters turned down on Nov. 4 – half the money would go to pay for operating the transit system and half the money for expanding MetroLink. The tax has been expected to raise $80 million a year.

The campaign will be in less favorable circumstances. Transit proposals do best on the same ballot as the president because of a large voter turnout. Local elections in April draw about 20 percent of the vote. Jones said the election has to be in April to avoid disrupting the transit system. State law prevents a return to the ballot of the 2008 proposal until this November whose voting day only is for special elections.

Metro responded to the tax defeat by reducing service on March 30 by about 33 percent. On Aug. 3, it will restore more than a third of the eliminated service using about about $20 million in federal money it got via federal and state sources. But, Jones said, that money runs out next May and without it, the transit agency would have to cut service again. An election in November, 2010 would be too late, he said.

The lack of money overshadows any concerns Dooley might have about being on the same ballot in August and probably November of next year as the tax proposal, Jones said.

The campaign for the tax will be different than the one last fall. Because of a large turnout, the tax campaign’s main task was to get its message out to persuade a majority of voters to vote yes. Last November, the tax was lost in north St. Louis County – the home of many transit riders and an area that has supported Metro in the past – because many voters turned a deaf ear to the campaign.

Next April, the campaign has to identify supporters and make sure they vote, Jones said.

Metro’s service cuts changed many people’s view of the problem, he said. The availability of service will be an issue when it was not in the past.

Before the vote, many people doubted Metro would make cuts. The agency “became adept at pulling rabbits out of the hat to keep the service going. People thought they were crying wolf,” Jones said. “Some groups that didn’t believe they would be affected found that they were,” he said.

Business people and administrators of institutions in outer areas of the county had problems because of their employees could not get to work, Jones said.

Tax supporters envision the campaign being overseen by a broad-based committee that would hire an expert to run the campaign. Among groups that have to be very active in the campaign are business people who need public transit for their workers, transit riders and business people who see public transit as an economic engine, he said.

Last fall, Dooley, the county executive, provided the leadership of the tax campaign. A member of his staff resigned to run the campaign. Dooley’s office was as close to the campaign as the county charter and campaign laws allowed, Jones said.

Jones estimated the campaign could cost $1 million – not only because of advertising expenses, but because of the cost of finding favorable voters and encouraging them to vote. And supporters have to raise the money when a slumping economy may dry up campaign donations.

For last November’s vote, the campaign had a budget of $850,000, but could raise only $650,000 – and the campaign had to scale back accordingly, Jones said.