By Bill Raack, St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis, MO – Supporters of putting a transit tax on the ballot in St. Louis County in April will rally downtown Saturday.
The St. Louis County Council will decide this month on whether to put the half-cent sales tax increase up for another public vote. It was rejected narrowly by county residents in November of 2008.
Katie Jansen Larson with Metropolitan Congregations United says there's more support now for public transit, since Metro cut bus lines and Metrolink trains this year.
"I don't think people expected the cuts that happened. And when the cuts were made there were a lot of people suffering because of that. And our members in both north and south county are saying this is not what we wanted to happen," Larson said."We didn't know that this was what it was going to be like when they made those cuts."
Opponents of the transit tax say it's not needed, suggesting that St. Louis County could allocate more money to Metro and the agency could make better fiscal decisions.
Saturday's rally will be held at 10 a.m. at the Millennium Hotel.