A lot has happened since my last US 169 Buck O'Neil Bridge post: the governor of Missouri exhibited himself as a lying fool, KC voters overwhelmingly approved moving forward with a new airport, we had a healthy baby girl, the corporate tax rate was FINALLY reduced (which we end up paying for through higher costs for goods) from 35% to 21%, the Zona Rosa bond train wreck (first broke by Ivan Foley) continues to grow, etc so I figured it was time for a new one.
First off, regional leaders (I soooo want to make a comment about a regional leader that made this harder than it should have been) rallied together and decided to commit a total of $40M of federal surface transportation funds over the next four years towards the project. MoDOT is to the point where they are willing to fund up to $100M towards a new bridge. Keep in mind, just a year ago we had ZERO funding for a new bridge and now we've identified $140M. Here is the news from the MARC Transportation Matters blog.
The last piece of the $200M financing package was put together with passage KCMO Ordinance 170919 which sets up an April 3, 2018 election which will ask KCMO voters to renew the City's current one cent capital improvements sales tax for 20 years. This would provide up to $60M towards the Bridge.
I'm not sure what the numbers are and it's too late to call Rob Willard but the last time I looked at the numbers something like 80% of all Platte County sales taxes were generated in KCMO so the cost of the bridge will be borne by people from all over. KCMO has the only Wal-Mart™, Target™, Costco™, etc with freeway access and a lot of folks come into town and shop. We've also go the only Menards™. This is also a renewal of a tax that has been in place since the 1980's and so there will be no change in what you pay in sales tax.
That may be a lot of local money for a bridge but there still is a chance that our federal elected officials might be able to help with additional federal funds. Too bad Claire McCaskill and others don't believe in earmarks because this is a perfect earmark project. If the federal government is going to continue to spend and spend and spend and bankrupt us, at least try to keep our money here by building stuff we can use rather than subsidizing subways in New York at $3.5 BILLION a mile. Better idea, reduce the federal gas tax, raise state gas taxex, and eliminate the DC overhead. Keep decisions and oversight/management local.
Now, if you want a new bridge, it's up to YOU to make it happen.
I created a Facebook event here that you can add to your calendar. It will be a helpful reminder to vote since Park Hill won't be having a school board election this April because only two candidates filed for the two open seats. I have to thank Matt Pepper for serving and congratulate Kyla Yamada for being the new holder of the "Yosemite Sam" seat. I assume Platte County, NKC, and Liberty will have competitive school board races but those of us in Park Hill will need to remember to show up and vote.
I uploaded the video from the KCMO Council committee discussing the renewal and details about financing options so you can make an informed choice when voting.
Again, if you want a new bridge, it's up to you. Accept the Facebook event here and share with friends. Also, reminder to check out the www.beyondtheloopkc.com website and take the survey on the concepts.
If you don't want to watch the video, you can download the podcast here. It's large size and I tried looking into some freeware for smaller podcasts but I decided life was too short and I had other things I'd rather do. I quit while I was ahead unlike this guy.....
Clip credit to Fox from the Married With Children show.
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