Clay Chastain Shares Apt Warning Against Upcoming Kansas City Transit Tax

Disagree with this activist you like . . . But let's not deny that he's one of the foremost experts on Kansas City transit alive today. 

Again, we always need to remind people that he is the ONLY person to win a citywide light rail vote. 

Accordingly, he latest word is worth consideration and provides quite a bit of detail given that he's the ONLY RESOURCE providing info about an upcoming ballot issue that council will vote on next week.

Here's the word . . .

Open Communication from Activist Clay Chastain to the New City Council: Beware the Mayor & heed the November election - it is poised to decide KC's transit future.

Two transit visions vie for the ballot...Mayor Quinton Lucas' *Covert Initiative* (born for his political good) vs. Activist Clay Chastain's *Landmark Initiative* (born for the greater good).
Chastain challenges the vision of the 29th Floor occupant who has failed to address KC's failed transit system during his 8-years in elected office.
Lucas would have been better off to continue ignoring the issue because his "Covert Initiative" (Ordinance # 230446) is worse than nothing. It proposes extending the 3/8-cent (bus) sales tax for 10-years on behalf of a " Public Mass Transportation System". That totally inept, vacuous and visionless stab at fixing transit is the culmination of 8-years in office! Here are the reasons to reject Lucas' self-serving *Covert Initiative*:

(1) Vague, shielded from input / community debate & is being railroaded toward the ballot.
(2). No community consensus behind it, nothing specific for voters to evaluate & lacks specificity which will hinder Congressman Cleaver from securing federal funding.
(3) Totally under-funded...Insufficient revenue cannot build a Citywide (comprehensive) 1st Class Public Transportation System for KC.
(4) Totally dubious...Indeterminate wording could fund anything transit-related including more Touristy Streetcars, bike lanes, etc.
(5) Leaves the ATA in the lurch by confiscating and repurposing its 3/8-cent (bus) sales tax.

Simply put: Lucas' *Covert Initiative* drops the transit ball & puts the New Council behind the 8-Ball - voters won't support a transit plan that guts the bus system and is as vague as the Man in the Moon.

Here are the reasons the New Council should embrace Chastain's *Landmark Initiative* for the November ballot:

(1) Specific: Airport to Downtown Monorail, Electric Bus System, Central Hub @ Union Station, Citywide Greenways, Eastside Rail System, et al.
(2) Well-funded: Extends 3/8-cent (bus) tax & imposes new 1/2-cent capital improvement tax (both 25-years) to construct (Citywide) *Green Transportation System* & secure federal funding.
(3) Multi-purposed: Pulls together additional concerns....revives the Eastside, creates affordable housing & powers... new growth, jobs, City revenues & a stronger economy.
(4) Transparent: Seeks open debate, input & any modifications the New City Council deems necessary.
(5) Comprehensive: Extends funding for the bus system (to stabilize and improve it) while simultaneously proposing a new tax to develop a Modern Monorail Train System.

We hope our New City Council will demonstrate independent, intelligent leadership - not be browbeat by (DC - bound) Lucas - and place before voters the greater plan for the greater good.

Kansas City Activist, Clay Chastain. 

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