http://www.nextstopstl.org/407/war-bill-includes-provision-to-help-fund-transit-operations/ A Conversation About Transit Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:21:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.nextstopstl.org/407/war-bill-includes-provision-to-help-fund-transit-operations/comment-page-1/#comment-37 Jimmy Z Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:57:16 +0000 http://www.nextstopstl.org/?p=407#comment-37 There ain't no free money in government - it all comes form taxes. We'd be better off sending less in taxes to DC and keeping more money here to support local projects and operations. Plus, the reasoning behind using stimulus funds for capital projects is to both jumpstart the local economy and avoid the cliff Metro faced this year when CMAQ funds went away that were being used to operate the cross-county extension for the first three years! Taxpayers elsewhere are willing to have 1% sales taxes to fund transit; here, the reality is less than a ¼% tax. The reason, fairly or unfairly, is the simple perception that Metro isn't doing a very good job. Until perceptions are changed, additional local funding will be hard to find. There ain’t no free money in government – it all comes form taxes. We’d be better off sending less in taxes to DC and keeping more money here to support local projects and operations. Plus, the reasoning behind using stimulus funds for capital projects is to both jumpstart the local economy and avoid the cliff Metro faced this year when CMAQ funds went away that were being used to operate the cross-county extension for the first three years! Taxpayers elsewhere are willing to have 1% sales taxes to fund transit; here, the reality is less than a ¼% tax. The reason, fairly or unfairly, is the simple perception that Metro isn’t doing a very good job. Until perceptions are changed, additional local funding will be hard to find.

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