Last Call On Metro’s Prop A

If you live in the City of St. Louis, you have every reason to stay up tomorrow and watch the election returns from St. Louis County. That's because voters there will make a decision that will have important consequences for many of our neighbors who use public transportation to get work in the county; for dozens of sports venues, cultural institutions, and schools in the City whose visitors and students ride Metro trains and buses in from the county; and for the City's seniors and people with disability who rely on accessible public transportation and Call-A-Ride to lead independent lives.

Most voters I have spoken to this week would be voting YES tomorrow if the issue were on a City ballot. In fact, City voters approved this issue years ago. County voters, however, have rejected it twice before. Tomorrow's election is their third chance and defeat will mean major cuts in Metro's service in the county and the City later this spring. I do not think we will see a fourth chance for a long time.

For those of you who oppose Prop A, you should probably know that I agree with most of your observations about Metro's past management, about the nature of sales taxes, about the state's incomprehensible failure to fund public transportation. For that matter, I have disagreed with the timing of this particular election. BUT I very strongly believe that the harm to the St. Louis region of failing to approve Prop A tomorrow far out-weighs all of the objections raised.

Over the past couple of months, I have been asking City voters to use their influence with county friends and family to urge a YES vote on Prop A. Many of you have already done so ' but, it would help for you to reach out to them one last time.

Thanks for every thing that you can do between now and 7 pm tomorrow.