by Ron McLinden
On November 7, 2006 Kansas Citians voted for light rail—at least, they voted for the notion of light rail. Voters approved a 25–year extension of a 3/8 cent city sales tax for transit (beginning April 1, 2009) to build a 27–mile light rail line concocted (back-of-the-envelope style) by perennial light rail initiative petitioner Clay Chastain.
Passage (53%–47%) has thrown the regional transit scene into mild disarray. Transit advocates had intended to ask voters to renew the 3/8 cent tax (passed in 2003 for five years as an interim measure to supplement an existing 1/2 cent city sales tax for transit) in the form of county-wide sales taxes to fund transit expansion throughout the region.
City officials, the Area Transportation Authority, Mid-America Regional Council, and the Regional Transit Alliance are interpreting the vote as evidence of public support for light rail—perhaps in response to the taste of $3 gasoline that we've all had—rather than an explicit endorsement of Chastain's exact proposal. They are currently laying the groundwork for the studies that will have to be done to prepare a specific light rail plan that is both financially and technically feasible, and that will satisfy Federal Transit Administration requirements for federal funding.
PS: Legislators should take note that voter sentiment for the kind of highways-only transportation funding plan that's expected to be introduced in the Missouri General Assembly might not be well received.