Statewide transportation sales tax coming in 2014

[warwickland]

not to go off topic, but was kcmo asleep for the proposition 5 "guns everywhere" vote? yikes!

I'm a gun owner, shooter, and sometimes-defender of gun rights, and even I voted against that silliness. Implicitly condoning via constitutional amendment the idea that if the feds come for your guns--which isn't happening--that you have the right to shoot them, or that the state should arrest them? Jesus what a stupid idea.

usualy KCMO votes with us libtards in st. louis city and county, so i guess i was sort of feeling screwed by the KC side.

I understood it as a war against outstate missouri. i understand the ozarks and plains, though.

[chaglang]

The SOS election site shows that it failed by 13,000 votes in KC (2:1), but passed by 11,000 in Jackson County. I assume that means eastern Jackson County.

[warwickland]

it's time for KCMO to succeed into its own city-county, don't pay for the infrastructure improvements out east, north, and sometimes south.

[mean]

not to go off topic, but was kcmo asleep for the proposition 5 "guns everywhere" vote? yikes!

I'm a gun owner, shooter, and sometimes-defender of gun rights, and even I voted against that silliness. Implicitly condoning via constitutional amendment the idea that if the feds come for your guns--which isn't happening--that you have the right to shoot them, or that the state should arrest them? Jesus what a stupid idea.

usualy KCMO votes with us libtards in st. louis city and county, so i guess i was sort of feeling screwed by the KC side.

I understood it as a war against outstate missouri. i understand the ozarks and plains, though.

The word libtard makes me want to punch people.

[warwickland]

I'm a gun owner, shooter, and sometimes-defender of gun rights, and even I voted against that silliness. Implicitly condoning via constitutional amendment the idea that if the feds come for your guns--which isn't happening--that you have the right to shoot them, or that the state should arrest them? Jesus what a stupid idea.

usualy KCMO votes with us libtards in st. louis city and county, so i guess i was sort of feeling screwed by the KC side.

I understood it as a war against outstate missouri. i understand the ozarks and plains, though.

The word libtard makes me want to punch people.

well, so does The Landing.

edit: i'm not a very good unsupervised ex-moderator.

[SWFan]

As has been said by a few posters above, the sales tax plan was just bad. I'm not against spending money for MODoT, but I just couldn't get behind the funding coming from sales tax. If they had a ballot issue that asked the same question, but raising the funds via toll roads and increased state fuel excise taxes; I would have voted yes.

I also like some of the suggestions in this thread about MODoT having too much responsibility for roads in MO. It does seem crazy some of the roads that fall under their jurisdiction. I too would be for a re-allocation of responsibility. KS seems to have a lot less to work with in terms of population for a tax base, yet most of the time when driving in KS I feel the roads are better.

[Smithfield]

I wonder if they wanted to go the sales tax route to justify spending money on transit. I would think the average highway user would cry foul if her gas tax money started going towards a streetcar instead of the highways she drives on.

I'm also a little worried that this was the big shot for transit. Will MoDOT say to themselves "We offered transit a huge percentage of the KC money and the people turned it down...never again" ?

[grovester]

I wonder if they wanted to go the sales tax route to justify spending money on transit. I would think the average highway user would cry foul if her gas tax money started going towards a streetcar instead of the highways she drives on.

I'm also a little worried that this was the big shot for transit. Will MoDOT say to themselves "We offered transit a huge percentage of the KC money and the people turned it down...never again" ?

I think it would have been voted down regardless of the ratio of transit to highways. I think the combination of state sales tax and streetcar on the same ballot was the big problem.

[LenexatoKCMO]

I wonder if they wanted to go the sales tax route to justify spending money on transit. I would think the average highway user would cry foul if her gas tax money started going towards a streetcar instead of the highways she drives on.

I'm also a little worried that this was the big shot for transit. Will MoDOT say to themselves "We offered transit a huge percentage of the KC money and the people turned it down...never again" ?

Fat chance. Jeff City knows they have no hope of getting any tax increase of any flavor passed without KC/SLU votes. There is too much natural hostility to tax in the first place in rural areas to rely on out-state alone.

[shinatoo]

Just spent two weeks in Oregon. Great public transportation. Great highways. One major city relative in size to KC. Tottal population about 2/3s of Missouri. NO sales tax! Talked to several business owners and they were fine with their level of property tax. How are they doing it? Seriously! Does anyone know? And why aren't we modeling after them?

[DaveKCMO]

Just spent two weeks in Oregon. Great public transportation. Great highways. One major city relative in size to KC. Tottal population about 2/3s of Missouri. NO sales tax! Talked to several business owners and they were fine with their level of property tax. How are they doing it? Seriously! Does anyone know? And why aren't we modeling after them?

status quo. missouri isn't progressive.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Just spent two weeks in Oregon. Great public transportation. Great highways. One major city relative in size to KC. Tottal population about 2/3s of Missouri. NO sales tax! Talked to several business owners and they were fine with their level of property tax. How are they doing it? Seriously! Does anyone know? And why aren't we modeling after them?

here is one item to review about Oregon taxes. www.movingtoportland.net/oregon/oregon-taxes/

[chingon]

How are they doing it? Seriously! Does anyone know?

They ignore everything outside of the Willamette Valley and count on rural depopulation trends to protect them at the ballot box.

[DaveKCMO]

https://twitter.com/J_Hancock/status/583282651391389696

Senate cmte today approved fuel tax increase of 6 cents over 3 yrs to raise $160m for state road/bridge repair

[SWFan]

I'd vote yes for a fuel sales tax increase.

In the KC Star article there was this quote:

Kansas spends roughly five times as much per mile on highway and bridge construction than Missouri, he said.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/governme ... rylink=cpy

I have to believe that is only possible because total highway miles in KS likely pales in comparison to the total highway miles in Missouri.

Which leads to another point I have, I think MODOT needs to look at all the roads they are responsible for and start nixing some as being city/county responsibility instead of the state's responsibility.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Doesn't Kansas still have some toll roads?

[flyingember]

Doesn't Kansas still have some toll roads?

I'm imagining you're being sarcastic.

But if not,
http://www.ksturnpike.com/travel_information/tolls

[aknowledgeableperson]

Point is with toll roads the money raised by the tolls is used specifically for that road. A toll road may have a greater revenue source than just a fuel tax that is spent on things other than the roadways.

It would appear the MO fuel tax is spent on more than state highways.

The tax is distributed to the Missouri Department of Transportation, Missouri cities and Missouri counties for road construction and maintenance.

Also the fuel tax is higher ($.07) in Kansas than in Missouri which would also lead to a possible higher spending rate.

I have to believe that is only possible because total highway miles in KS likely pales in comparison to the total highway miles in Missouri.

Which leads to another point I have, I think MODOT needs to look at all the roads they are responsible for and start nixing some as being city/county responsibility instead of the state's responsibility.

It isn't MODOT that determines the responsibility but the state.

[pash]

.

[Eon Blue]

Raising the gas tax would help, but it doesn't address the paucity of funding from the state for transit.