Republicans may throw Metro a lifeline
Missouri House Speaker Ron Richard
Efforts to reverse — at least temporarily — devastating cuts to Metro transit agency services are still very much alive. Thanks to the work of Missouri House Speaker Ron Richard, R-Joplin, and Rep. Allen Icet, R-Wildwood, Metro has been penciled in for $20 million in a bill to allocate nearly $270 million in federal aid to the state.
The funds will come from approximately $4 billion in federal stimulus funds and budget stabilization help Missouri is to receive under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that President Barack Obama signed in mid-February.
Metro can’t yet take the money to the bank. Legislative hurdles remain before the agency can consider restoring routes to employment centers and special services for the disabled and elderly. But it’s a serious and promising start — one that offers the St. Louis region a fresh chance to secure public transit’s long-term stability.
Mr. Richard credits Metro President Bob Baer with the breakthrough, saying Mr. Baer made a convincing case that the cuts in transit service have caused unprecedented hardship among St. Louis businesses, working people, the elderly and the disabled — conditions the speaker says he confirmed firsthand during recent visits to the region.
Mr. Richard told us Wednesday that House members are comfortable with recent changes in Metro’s management and “very sympathetic” to the need for relief.
But the speaker believes as a matter of principle that the state should not bridge Metro’s entire shortfall, estimated at between $35 million and $50 million. That’s in part because of mixed signals sent by St. Louis County voters, who in November narrowly defeated a local transit tax that would have alleviated the problem.
Mr. Richard says that Metro has provided a sound plan for making do with $20 million in funding — and that it represents a fair compromise. “I will try to hold it,” he said, and “I don’t think I’ll have trouble doing so.”
The $20 million reprieve still requires approval of both the House and Senate. Limited service could not be restored until the new budget year begins on July 1.
Even then, the reprieve would be short lived if St. Louis business, labor and political leaders, along with colleges and universities and civic-minded citizens, don’t quickly coalesce around a long-term plan to stabilize funding for regional public transit. They should do so forcefully and energetically.
St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley and County Council must take the first step, asking voters to reconsider a half-cent transit tax, perhaps as early as April 2010.
They should be supported by a well-funded campaign and by testimonials from the thousands who — directly and indirectly — have been hit hard by the loss of fundamental services. This is a rare chance to glimpse the full consequences of a nasty crisis and turn it around before it’s too late.
If Charlie Dooley will now restore the $10 MILLION he cut from Metro we could see all services restored for at least the next 12 months. COME ON CHARLIE! Put the money back!
I hope metro does a good job of selling when it gets put back on the ballot. The old management is gone, and it looks like the state is finally realize what a mistake letting metrolink be underfunded. People in St. Louis need to realize the importance of regional transit. Even K.C. a city that has been behind St. Louis for years is considering developing commuter trains. It looks like St. Louis will get a chance in 2010 to reverse a terrible decision to not fund transit. There has been more development around Metrolink than in any other part of the region. Express Scripts, the fastest growing company in St Louis required a metrolink stop be built to locate it’s headquarters in N. St. Louis County. The best neighborhoods here in Chicago are all near the “el”. Hopefully St. Louis wakes up and reverses the idiotic shortsighted decision that was made this winter. You can’t be a real city without transit, and voting it down gives the impression to young people who create jobs that you are a Cowtown. Do the right thing St. Louis, I hate seeing my hometown go down the tubes because the people who live there don’t see the big picture and love to shoot themselves in the foot. Merge the City and county while you are at it. Metrolink never would’ve failed if it was voted on as a region.
I somewhat suggested this months ago when Sen. McCaskill failed to secure an earmark for Metro to stay alive. Happy to see that the Republicans are finally picking up the slack and cleaning up after the Dems again.
for all the libs out there….I am complaining when a republican spends money.Another example of the fleecing of America for a floundering group “METRO”
It is reported that:
Mr. Richard credits Metro President Bob Baer with the breakthrough, saying Mr. Baer made a convincing case that the cuts in transit service have caused unprecedented hardship among St. Louis businesses, working people, the elderly and the disabled — conditions the speaker says he confirmed firsthand during recent visits to the region.
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Why couldn’t these lawmakers see for themselves those cuts would have this effect? I truly don’t understand how any supposedly intelligent human being could not see that this would be consequence and outcome from cuts in public transportation. What is it? Could it be that their ears are dead to the cries of the working poor? Why is it that they can suddenly hear now? Could it be because now that these routes are no longer in existence, many of their buddies have been having nothing but pains in the rear for their businesses and their low-wage workers? Now that these Missouri Republican lawmakers have a face that they can identify with, they have miraculous become able to hear. How pathetically pitiful these legislators are.
Spending $20B on Bi-State Development Agency to do what?
The only reasonable place to run buses is in densely populated areas. A full-size bus on “new” Route #98 is a total waste of taxpayers’ and businesses’ money. I can not believe City of Chesterfield agreed to do that. Please, demand accountability.
Then, they all cry about overloaded #70 Grand. But it is the fact that tax increase passed in the City of St. Louis years ago. Why isn’t it collected to at least keep “so much needed service” within its City Limits to which Grand, Kingshighway and Hampton routes are totally confined?