Where Would Funds From Proposed STL Sales Tax Increase Go?
Date Posted: January 11, 2017
Posted In: News,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Mayor Francis Slay’s administration on Tuesday provided its first detailed look at how it would spend new revenue generated by a half-cent sales tax hike the mayor is pushing to get on the April ballot.
The administration estimates the tax increase could generate as much as $20 million a year.
Should voters approve the measure, the city would issue bonds to finance projects in four areas: MetroLink expansion, neighborhood revitalization, workforce development and public safety. Money from the tax also would go toward infrastructure.
Slay has repeatedly said helping expand MetroLink is one of the last big things he wants to do before leaving office in April after 16 years. The additional tax money would pay for the first phase of a north-south expansion of the rail service.
Plans call for roughly $10 million a year generated by the sales tax to go toward the study, planning, federal matching funds and eventual construction of a roughly 8-mile MetroLink expansion stretching from Fairground Park in the north to Cherokee Street on the city’s south side.
Slay spokeswoman Maggie Crane said the project would cost in the neighborhood of $650 million and could break ground in 2023. Crane said she didn’t want to speculate on when the project might be completed.
Phase one is a small piece of what city leaders hope will one day turn into a comprehensive 31.5-mile city-county expansion.
Alderman Scott Ogilvie, 24th Ward, supports the plan but said it doesn’t go far enough.
He said the city will have to become more aggressive and find more revenue, perhaps $15 million a year or more, to truly build a comprehensive MetroLink system.