Despite the valiant efforts of Senator Robin Wright Jones, it appears SB 477 is not going anywhere this year. The bill, introduced by Senator Jones at CMT’s request, would have allowed for the creation of the Transportation Development District of the entire St. Louis City and County. The new district could have asked residents of the district to approve additional funding for the operation of Metro and the expansion of MetroLink. A district would have had the advantage of combining city and county voters in deciding the fate of transit funding. Currently the city and county voters decide separately with the result being a minority of far west and south county voters holding back the region’s transit funding by their low support of transit funding.
Senator Eric Schmitt of Glendale in St. Louis County delayed the vote at least twice on the Senate floor which resulted in the bill never reaching a vote.