Reliable public transit a critical objective in the Kansas City region
Nobody is unaware of the impact our flagging economy has had on retail sales and the sales tax that is the primary support for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority’s operations. Equally well published is the budget crisis faced by the city of Kansas City, Mo.. But less widely known is the slice that the city council made in KCATA funding from these dwindling sales tax revenues to address other pressing transportation issues.
The Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance (RTA) follows these issues daily, and has regularly spoken out regarding transportation issues in the Kansas City region. Most notably, the status of public transportation in Kansas City has been disproportionately lower than any of our competitor sister cities, and the current transit fiscal crisis is no surprise to those who concern themselves with transit issues. The following comparison map of per-capita investment in public transit operations needs little explanation.
However, there are some fissures in this old pattern that have emerged in the recent past that bode better times for the public transit picture in Kansas City.
- Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders has put forward a dramatic, four-county proposal for rail transit on existing railroad tracks that has stimulated considerable discussion on the Missouri side.
- Overland Park Mayor Carl Gerlach and Mission Mayor Laura McConwell have been pushing the Vision Metcalf plan that envisions bus rapid transit service (BRT) from southern Johnson County across the state line to the Plaza and the Troost corridor.
- Unified Government Mayor/CEO Joe Reardon is underway with planning for the State Avenue BRT connecting Village West with downtown Kansas City, Kan., and downtown Kansas City, Mo.
- Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) is undertaking a study that will try to merge these three disparate proposals into a regional transit network that could provide the basis for an election or a series of elections to support a start on such a regional system.
Current economic realities may make such aspirations unrealistic at the present time, however, in MARC’s long-range plan, Transportation Outlook 2040, an important economic reality has been realized: if the region maintains its current transportation and land-use policies, MARC projects that we will spend $5.3 billion more for new infrastructure over the next 30 years than if we promote more transit and a more walkable development pattern. In the face of this projection, the MARC board recently directed the MARC staff to proceed with plans to encourage these new transportation and development policies.
As this long-range planning proceeds, one of the critical issues facing the region is how such a regional transit system should be funded and governed. Current Missouri legislation would allow counties of a certain size to establish county transit authorities with the power to levy a sales tax of up to one cent, and while no decisions have been made, Jackson, Clay and Platte counties have discussed the use of this statute.
Some are resistant to placing such a planning, construction and operating responsibility in the hands of the KCATA, because it is seen as too closely and exclusively allied with the city of Kansas City, Mo. Johnson County and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., established their own transit operations, though both these Kansas communities receive some services from KCATA through contractual agreements. RTA does not have a position on who should manage a regional system, but the recent performance of KCATA in dealing with these funding challenges has demonstrated diligence and a capacity that does not seem to be widely appreciated in the region.
What RTA does believe is that a regional network of seamless, reliable, attractive, multimodal public transit is an essential element of a competitive urban region that aspires to thrive, provide a good quality of life for its residents and attract new investment. Most of our competitor sister regions have found ways to establish and manage such a public service, usually through regionally controlled funding and governance. The current MARC studies appear to offer an encouraging potential for reaching toward this objective, and we at the RTA are working hard to help realize this goal.
Kite Singleton
RTA Board Member, Contributing Author
