In a dramatic affirmation of the region’s broad support for public transit and recognition of its importance, St. Louis County voters approved a half-cent sales tax increase, largely to fund Metro, by nearly a 2-1 margin on Tuesday.
Yes votes for Proposition A tallied 94,261, or 63 percent; while only 55,580 voters, or 37 percent, voted No.
“This resounding victory for Prop A was produced by a bipartisan coalition of leaders who understood that a modern public transit system is essential for our region’s future,” said U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-St. Louis).
“I want to thank St. Louis County voters for their strong vote of confidence to keep the jobs we have, and to position us to grow new jobs in the future.”
Metro had warned that deep cuts in service and staff would follow from a defeat of the proposition. When a similar initiative failed in 2008, Metro service was cut dramatically and only later temporarily reinstated, in part, through a one-time infusion of federal stimulus funds.
Clay worked his 1st Congressional District, fresh from the nasty partisan battle to pass President Obama’s health insurance reform bill. By contrast, the push for Proposition A was, as Clay said, fully bipartisan.
Proposition A was spearheaded by Mayor John Nations of Chesterfield, a Republican, and supported by a wide range of public officials, including County Executive Charlie A. Dooley and St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay, both conservative Democrats, and all five candidates for the open state Senate seat in North County.
Among key labor supporters, Dooley singled out Nancy Cross of the Service Employees International Union.
“This was one of the best and broadest coalitions the region has ever seen. It really makes you feel good to be a part of something like that,” Nations told The American the morning after the victory.
“It goes to show when you have an issue of regional importance and you get the support of your finest employers and educational institutions to engage voters in a discussion of the future of the region, very good things can happen.”
Corporate St. Louis, embodied by the RCGA, and university chancellors such as Mark Wrighton of Washington University and Tom George of University of Missouri–St. Louis, publicly endorsed the measure. All argued for the long-term strategic value of public transit to St. Louis.
Black clergy – typically a socially conservative leadership – gave a strong public push for the measure alongside diverse urban pioneers and pro-transit progressives.
Nations dipped into his own party and took advice from Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder in locating the nucleus of the Prop A campaign’s original street team in North County, led by the Rev. Ken McKoy.
“The support of the African-American community was essential to this effort. I can’t say enough in commendation of their efforts,” Nations said.
“They stepped up when we needed someone to step up and motivate the voters. This would not have been successful without the participation of the African-American community.”
Engaging the clergy
Later, an ad hoc committee of black clergy, chaired by the Rev. Sammie E. Jones of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, also was engaged.
“It was needed and necessary to continue the empowerment of our people by providing transportation to those who must ride mass transit, to ensure that jobs would be maintained and that people could get to worship in various churches, city and county,” Rev. Jones said of Proposition A.
Bob Baer, president and CEO of Metro, credited two venerable institutions in St. Louis’ African-American community – The St. Louis American and the city’s Urban League affiliate – in engaging the active support of clergy.
“Guys like Donald Suggs and Jim Buford helped us put together a very broad-based and diverse coalition – Democrat, Republican, black, white, religious, educational, labor. Without them, this would not have gotten done,” Baer said.
“I am absolutely convinced that the leadership of Jim Buford and especially Donald Suggs were instrumental to this thing passing. And Metro will do everything we can to serve the African-American community in any way we possibly can.”
Rev. Jones said his clergy group intends to hold Baer to his word.
“Mr. Bob Baer and others who govern transit have agreed to allow us to have a sitting voice at the table,” Jones said.
“We promise to give voice to the issues that address people of color and the poor who need mass transit – and other who just choose to ride it.”
A few voices of public opposition were offered by the far-right Tea Party movement, which has embraced many of the crudest protests registered against President Obama and U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s Congress. A smattering of fringe black activists also opposed the measure, based on suspicion of how Metro will allocate new funds.
But opponents of the measure were crushed at the polls. The nearly 2-1 margin of victory appeared soon after polls closed at 7 p.m., when absentee ballots were counted, and remained near that margin throughout the night of election returns, suggesting the margin of support throughout the county was equally high.
Mike Jones, senior policy advisor for County Executive Charlie A. Dooley and a tenacious supporter of Metro, was one of many who savored the victory. Though Jones extols the business case for transit, he was left thinking about the bus routes through poor neighborhoods that will be spared now.
“This is one for the folks who needed it,” Jones told The American. “I haven’t smiled this much in a long time.”
Tax dollars
The passage of Proposition A also triggers a quarter-cent sales tax increase in the city of St. Louis that had previously been passed by city voters, only to go into effect when a similar measure was passed in the county.
This brings the city’s transportation sales tax up to a full 1 percent and the county’s to 1.25 percent – both at the maximum levels allowed by state law.
The annual increase in tax revenues will amount to about $9 million in the city and about $80 million in the county. In recent years, the state reduced Metro’s funding from $4 million to $1.2 million. The transit system’s total budget is about $200 million.
There is a key difference in how taxes are handled in the city and county. In the city, all the transportation sales tax money goes to Metro. In St. Louis County, about a quarter of percent is used to subsidize road maintenance. The County plans to take a quarter-cent, or $40 million, and put that money in its highways fund.
In other elections
In other elections followed by The American, Shelley Welsch was voted mayor of University City by a narrow margin of 105 votes over Terry Crow. Welsch received 3,259 votes (45 percent), while Crow received 3,154 votes (44 percent). Bob Wagner received 784 votes (11 percent).
Also in University City, state Rep. Maria Chappelle-Nadal was voted onto the school board with 4,228 votes (39 percent); Tom Peters (3,601 votes, or 33 percent) also was voted onto the board.
Paul Ward, the only African-American City Council member in Kirkwood, retained his seat.
Voter turnout in the county was at 22 percent, with 150,760 votes cast.
