Kansas City Transit Ridership Showing Little Progress

Posted on by Joseph Miller

The conventional wisdom in Kansas City is that the city is becoming a hub for urban millennials. To keep the new city dwellers and attract more, the city supposedly needs to expand transit options, which young people prefer.

However, while Kansas City has had some success revitalizing its downtown, the most recent transit data does not suggest any contemporaneous surge in transit usage.

Ridership Graph (2)

As the chart above demonstrates, despite the fact that total employment has now exceeded prerecession levels in the Kansas City metropolitan area, Kansas City Area Transit Authority (KCATA) ridership has yet to recover. In fact, the most recent data shows total passenger trips are still fewer than they were before the recession by about 800,000 annual riders. Interestingly, transit passenger trips recovered relatively quickly until early 2012, since which time transit usage has actually fallen.

Proponents of transit expansion might argue that Kansas City simply has substandard public transportation options, and that the addition of bus rapid transit, light rail, and streetcars will greatly increase passenger trips. While some net new trips are likely given better service, KCATA’s recent experience should cast doubt on just how much needs to be done to attract new riders. KCATA opened new bus rapid transit lines, a.k.a. MAX routes, in 2005, 2011, and 2013. Since that time, increases in MAX ridership have been met with decreased use in regular bus passenger trips. It is possible to see MAX trips (which are generally longer) as more valuable than the lost bus trips, but there is no evidence that MAX drew significant new riders to KCATA; it is most likely the case that existing transit riders diverted to the better service.

The postrecession performance of KCATA is a bit of a puzzle, and I encourage anyone with reasonable explanations to give them in the comments. However, Kansas City’s employment growth and the increasing numbers of millennials living downtown has not spurred large transit passenger growth. Instead of pushing expensive rail transit plans, perhaps regional planners should ask how Kansas City, with no rail transit and some of the most highway miles per capita of any major city, was able to become to a millennial destination in the first place.

In Praise of So-Called Leaderless Drift

Posted on by Patrick Tuohey

Dave Helling of the Kansas City Star writes in a column on the upcoming elections titled, “Springtime KC Voters Still Stuck in a Drift,”

the lack of a serious mayoral campaign also illustrates an ongoing issue in Kansas City politics. Voters are uninterested in the mayor’s race because the mayor’s job is, essentially, uninteresting.

For all the changes to the city’s charter over the years, the mayor remains primarily a 13th vote on the council. He or she makes some appointments and gets his or her name in the news, but day-to-day operations remain in the hands of the city manager.

More importantly, though, the council itself is relatively powerless. It doesn’t have the power to tax. And much of the city’s spending is off-limits, leading to fierce disputes over relatively small amounts of money.

Helling concludes, “More fundamentally, though, Kansas City seems locked in a leaderless drift—not because it lacks leaders, but because its government is built that way.”

Indeed, the government here was built that way with protections such as term limits and the Hancock Amendment. “Leaderless drift” suggests that without a strong leader cities are doomed. Often the opposite is true; take Chicago, where for 22 years Mayor Richard M. Daley spent and spent and spent on fruitless economic development schemes. Taxpayers in Kansas City are already on the hook for the ill-considered whims of self-styled geniuses. Do they want a government where the people are not a check on new airports, streetcars, convention hotels, and the like?

Kansas City still manages to excel at crony capitalism for the benefit of big business and developers, but at a much smaller scale than its leaders would prefer. And that is a good thing.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article16927700.html#storylink=cpy

Bag Ban Ban-Not a Tongue Twister, a Proposed Law

Posted on by Brittany Wagner

rrrI like plastic bags. I use them for groceries, crafts, wet swimsuits, small trash can liners, and more. As far as the “reuse” part of the triple-R-cycle goes, I’m covered. Still, cities across the country are pushing to reduce plastic bag use by instituting bans.

In March, the Columbia City Council withdrew a plan to ban plastic bags at “groceries, convenient stores, and pharmacies.” The proposal would have mandated that stores charge 10 cents per plastic bag. While supporters said the new policy would reduce waste and benefit the environment, it took a lot of heat from constituents and was withdrawn a month later.

A legislator said we are likely to see more municipalities pursuing plastic bag bans as they have become more popular nationwide, which is why lawmakers are considering legislation that would ban plastic bag bans. House Bill 722 would allow businesses a choice on what type of bag they provide customers.

Bag bans are meant to incentivize the use of other types of shopping bags such as reusable bags, but research regarding the use of reusable bags over plastic bags is mixed. In cities that have instituted plastic bag bans, people began to use more paper bags. Unlike plastic bags, paper bags are not often recycled or reused and come with their own set of environmental consequences.

While I believe that Missouri should promote environmentally responsible behavior, it’s unclear whether or not policies like the one Columbia proposed would actually help the environment. Though some might argue that a statewide ban on bans limits the power of local governments, the proposed legislation actually protects the rights of individuals.

Show-Me Now! Transparency for Government Unions

Posted on by John Wright

Did you know that government union employees get taxpayer funded leave which can be used for partisan activities? While union release time is often to attend conferences or other activities, a recent report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute highlights how unionized government workers in Missouri have misused the practice. They conclude that greater transparency is needed.

 

The 411 on a CID in the B70

Posted on by Michael Rathbone

Some business leaders in Columbia want more attention for their slice of town. To do that they are getting together to create a new community improvement district (CID) for the Business 70 Loop. This sounds innocent enough. However, CIDs are just another example of the alphabet-soup taxing districts that increase tax rates to fund new services for a questionable public purpose.

CIDs are independent taxing districts created to collect sales and property taxes and spend money to improve an area in a variety of ways, including beautification and infrastructure. There are two primary problems with CIDs. The first problem is transparency. The auditor’s office has consistently found deficiencies in reporting and documentation for these districts.

The other issue with CIDs is their lack of a cap on property taxes. Under the current proposal, the CID would levy an additional 47 cents per $100 of assessed value of property taxes on top of what people/businesses already pay. However, there is no statutory language preventing the CID from increasing property taxes further. An extreme example is when a CID in the Lake of the Ozarks levied an additional $4 per $100 of assessed value. I’m not saying this proposed CID will have taxes go up that high, but there is nothing stopping such an increase from happening except the restraint of the CID board.

Given these problems, what is the compelling reason for establishing a CID, especially since the area is already seeing redevelopment? As the Columbia Tribune states:

He also cited Miller’s 2012 purchase of the old Commerce Bank building at 500 Business Loop 70 W., Head Motor Company’s recent upgrades and his own redevelopment of the Parkade Center as examples of the type of redevelopment he would like to see along the corridor. Further east, Business Loop 70 boasts a newly remodeled Burger King and renovated McDonald’s.

“We’re starting to see redevelopment occur, and we want to make sure we have pro-redevelopment policies in place,” Burnam said.

If this article tells us anything, it appears that legal restrictions on renovating existing lots are the problem. Maybe proponents should work on fixing the regulatory environment instead of raising taxes.

CIDs have serious issues and should only be undertaken without serious safeguards in place, if at all. The Business Loop in Columbia might not be a paradise, but is it so blighted that the only thing left to do is establish a CID? Color me skeptical.

Saint Louis Metro Ridership Up, but MetroLink Ridership Down

Posted on by Joseph Miller

The latest data released by the national transit database shows the continued, albeit slow, recovery of transit ridership in the Saint Louis area. The annual moving average of MetroLink and MetroBus ridership had their most recent peak in October 2008, before sharply declining in the recession.

But since the recession, transit ridership has been on a steady recovery. Continuing that trend, from January 2014 to January 2015, Metro increased passenger trips by 1 percent. This increase has encouraged leading regional transit advocates, who call for more investment in transit and even a new North-South MetroLink line in the city.

However, the growth in Metro’s ridership should be taken in perspective. For one, ridership is still well below Metro’s prerecession peak of 58 million (reached in October 2008). As of last January, total annual ridership stood at just 47 million trips.

In a bit of irony, while transit enthusiasts are generally rail focused in their plans to improve Saint Louis’ public transportation, buses, not rail ridership, have accounted for the increased transit ridership in the past year. MetroLink ridership actually decreased in 2014 by some 200,000 riders. With total annual monthly ridership more than 30 percent below its prerecession peak, it is reasonable to conclude that rail ridership in Saint Louis has not had a recovery.

Graph_STL_transit

In short, Metro ridership is increasing, but the growth is slow and prerecession highs are far from being matched. In addition, most of the recovery in ridership has occurred on MetroBuses, not the MetroLink. There may be many reasons for wanting to expand transit (and even rail transit) in Saint Louis, but spiking transit demand is not one of them.

Should School Districts Be Too Small to Fail?

Posted on by James V. Shuls

When an individual gets financial support from the government, we call it an “entitlement.” When a large business gets tax breaks, we call it “corporate welfare.” However, when a small school district cannot afford to keep its doors open without significant support from the state, we call it an “issue of local control.”

Right now, there are 191 districts with 350 or fewer students enrolled. These districts get less than half of their funding from local sources, 46 percent on average. The rest comes from state (44 percent) and federal (10 percent) sources. The smallest district in the state, Gorin R-III, for example, has just 19 students enrolled. The district raises just 38 percent of operating expenditures locally, while 54 percent comes from the state. Then there is Plainview R-VIII, enrollment 81. With the low tax rate of just $2.9123 per $100 of assessed valuation, Plainview raises just 28 percent of the operating funds locally, while 63 percent comes from the state. In all, 141 of the small districts receive less than half of their funding for operating expenses from local sources.

These districts are able to exist because of generous state support. Specifically, the state legislature sets aside $15 million for school districts with fewer than 350 students. This is in addition to the funding that comes through the state’s foundation formula for K-12 public schools.

In my last post, I discussed House Bill 1292 and asked if school consolidation was an issue of local control. I received a couple of comments that said it was. Maybe they are right. Maybe it should be a local decision to join with a neighboring district. Whether these small districts should receive additional state funding, however, is not an issue of local control. It is an issue that all taxpayers and all state policymakers should have a say in.

Should school districts be too small to fail? That is, do small school districts deserve extra financial support because they may close if they do not receive extra funding?

I am completely sympathetic to arguments of local control. However, I’m concerned too many claim local control only when it suits them. It certainly seems contradictory to claim sovereignty, while going hat in hand to state taxpayers for additional funds.

 

A Primer on Government Unions

Posted on by John Wright

From the 2011 Wisconsin Capitol protests to Illinois’ recent executive order banning agency fees for state workers, government labor relations are headline news in recent years. Missouri is no different: In 2007 the Missouri Supreme Court threw out 60 years of precedent with the landmark Independence case that gave government workers the ability to collectively bargain with the government.

To help the public better understand this complicated but increasingly important issue, we published a guide to government unions in the Show-Me State. Find it here: A Primer on Government Labor Relations in Missouri. The primer explains:

  • The basics of government collective bargaining;

  • The legal framework in which government unions collectively bargain with government entities, such as school districts, cities, and the state itself;

  • A survey of the types of government employees subject to union representation;

  • An overview of the common practices of Missouri’s government employee unions;

  • And much, much more.

For more information or if you have any questions about this primer, please contact me at the Show-Me Institute.

Show-Me Institute Presents: Pension Reform in Missouri

Posted on by Michael Rathbone

Hawley

It’s not news that Missouri’s pensions are underfunded. In fact, they’re an economic ticking time bomb that could leave taxpayers on the hook for billions. Unless we want taxpayers to get stuck with the bill, these pensions need to be reformed. However, there are legal barriers that might stand in the way of any reform effort. These barriers have been difficult to determine . . . until now.

Yesterday, the Show-Me Institute released a new policy study titled, “Pension Reform in Missouri.” The study’s author, Erin Morrow Hawley, sets out the legal framework that will govern pension reform in Missouri. In analyzing the statutory provisions related to Missouri’s public pensions, questions arise:

  • What interests are protected?

  • May the general assembly modify pension benefits retroactively? Prospectively?

  • What about contribution increases or decreases?

This study analyzes the statutory provisions related to these inquiries and sets forth a variety of pension reform measures that may be possible under Missouri law.

With the need to reform pensions becoming more acute every year, it is vital that any reform effort be able to successfully address the legal issues that might arise. With this new study, doing so has become much easier.

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