Saturday, May 31, 2008

Crazy Talk In Kansas City

Just nutty.

Funkhouser has proposed, based on input from local transit planners, a 119-mile network of light rail and streetcars in city streets, commuter rail on existing railroad tracks, plus rapid and express buses. It would require a half-cent sales tax increase in the three counties, plus hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government. And it would be overseen by a new tri-county board of mayors and county officials.

Funkhouser’s proposal excludes the Kansas side of the state line because authorizing legislation exists only in Missouri, and Johnson County mayors have expressed little interest in pursuing a transit tax.