Ballot measures asking taxpayers to support huge expansions of light-rail mass transit systems were shot down Tuesday by voters in Colorado and Missouri.
Denver's Regional Transportation District wanted to raise its share of sales tax revenue from six-tenths of a cent to a penny to pay for light rail, commuter rail, expanded bus service, park-and-ride lots and high-occupancy vehicle lanes. But voters in the six-county metro region rejected the "Guide the Ride" proposal by a 58-42 percent margin.In Missouri, residents in St. Louis and in nearby Madison County defeated separate proposals for expansion of the MetroLink system.
And in Seattle, voters surprisingly approved a proposition forcing the city to build a $1 billion, 40-mile monorail system - without a way to pay for it.
The election results were particularly pleasing to a group of light rail opponents in Salt Lake Valley, who expect the Utah Transit Authority will ask voters in the next several years to approve a quarter-cent sales tax increase for light rail extensions.
Drew Chamberlain, vice president of Citizens Against Light Rail, said the Colorado and Missouri votes should send the message to UTA officials that they will not be able to convince Utah voters to support a tax increase.
"Tax hikes for light rail will be rejected over and over and over again. The only way they can get an increase in taxes for light rail is if they hide the fact that it's for light rail and (UTA general manager) John Inglish has already said he's going to do that," Chamberlain said Thursday.
"It's interesting that in cities where they have light rail and they say it's so successful, like St. Louis, voters rejected (a tax increase). If you look at the statistics, light rail is a failure."
Chamberlain said UTA should stop construction of its 15-mile north-south light rail line, to be completed by March 2000, and transfer the federal funds into road construction projects.
UTA chairman Jim Clark took a different view of Tuesday's votes. He said every community and every situation is different, and he still believes Salt Lake Valley residents will support light-rail extensions once the initial line is up and running.
Tuesday's results "don't take away from the success of light rail," Clark said. "Drew can be as ecstatic as he wants to be, but it just means that people don't want to go into debt to extend (light rail elsewhere) and I can sympathize with that."
In St. Louis, the proposed quarter-cent tax hike for light rail narrowly passed in the city but was defeated by a 58-42 percent margin in St. Louis County. Separate majorities were required for passage.
The Madison County measure, proposing a half-cent tax hike to fund a massive $5.5 billion suburban light rail connection with MetroLink, failed 62 percent to 38 percent.
Clark noted that St. Louis' MetroLink system already is supported by a three-quarter-cent sales tax contribution - a quarter center for light rail alone and a half-cent for light rail and other transportation projects. Few transit agencies across the country have only a quarter-cent tax to work with as UTA does, he said.