By Paul Thompson

Northeast News

July 28, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – A November 8 vote on light rail became a reality on Thursday, July 28, as the KCMO City Council passed Clay Chastain’s latest transit measure through gritted teeth during its weekly legislative session.

The proposed light rail plan – the result of an initiative petition put forth by long-time transit advocate Chastain – asks voters to enact three 25-year sales taxes that would combine to total a three-fourths of a cent. Ordinance No. 160500 calls for the current 3/8-cent KCATA sales tax to be repurposed in 2024 to cover light rail costs, which would include a fleet of electronic buses to provide transportation to commuter rail stations. The plan also calls for a 1/8-cent sales tax and a 1/4-cent sales tax to be enacted beginning in 2017.

The light rail system as presented in the ordinance would connect Kansas City International to Cerner’s new South Kansas City campus, while also connecting Union Station to the Truman Sports Complex. The north-south spine of the route would include eight additional stops: at the Twin Creeks neighborhood, Vivion Road, North Kansas City, the Sprint Center, Union Station, the Plaza/UMKC area, Brookside, and the Kansas City Zoo.

Chastain’s initiative petition needed roughly 1,700 signatures to make it onto the November 8, 2016 election ballot. That number is derived from the most recent mayoral election: petition signatures must equal 5% of the previous election’s turnout in order to qualify. City Attorney Bill Geary indicated during a July 20 committee meeting that the light rail petition garnered just over 1,750 signatures.

Geary further noted that after reaching the signature threshold, an initiative petition must only be considered “constitutional on its face” – or constitutional at face value – in order to be placed on the ballot.

“If it’s constitutional on its face, it can be ridiculous or silly, or it can be the best thing since sliced bread,” said Geary. “It doesn’t matter what I think.”

Although the measure was passed unanimously by the council on July 28, members indicated that the decision was a result of duty rather than support. 2nd District Councilman Dan Fowler didn’t hesitate to express his distaste for the ordinance.

“I am voting for it only because the law and the city charter give me no choice but to do that,” said Fowler. “This plan has not even the most remote chance of proceeding. This plan is, in short, a fraud.”

Ahead of the July 20 committee meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Scott Wagner discussed Chastain’s previous light rail plan that was approved by Kansas City voters in 2006. The City Council eventually repealed that legislation after analyzing it deeper, finding that the plan could not actually be achieved as presented. Wagner suggested that the same could ultimately be true of the current light rail ordinance.

“This plan – even though it may be constitutional – from the aspect of it being workable or achievable, there are great concerns that it would be,” Wagner said. “I think to achieve what that ballot initiative calls for is going to be very tough to accomplish.”