By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Opponents of Metro's proposed February tax referendum in St. Louis County are gearing up to defeat the ballot issue. A group called Missourians for Lower Taxes, which opposed a tax hike for Metro in St. Charles County in 1996, says the new half-cent sales tax increase for Metro operations and future Metrolink expansion is a bad deal.
President of the group, Nick Kasoff, says light rail is not a smart investment right now.
"Considering the fact that there's going to be a million people paying the tax and only a very small portion of them using the service, it's both unfair and significant in terms of the amount of dollars."
The tax increase would raise about $80 million a year and would expire after 20 years. Metro says the tax increase would be split between maintenance of the entire system and Metrolink expansion.