"It is, quite frankly, absurd to aver that if this doesn't happen nothing ever will. "
Of course we can't predict the future. It's been 56 years since voters have had a chance to consider a consolidation plan. Given the present challenges and dysfunction, I think urgency is in order. I get the many who are benefiting from the current structure don't see it that way. Totally understandable that residents in Des Peres think it's great that non-resident shoppers pay for their trash service.
If this fails will BT endure and propose something different? idk. Will some other group emerge and take a different approach? idk I do know that STL-World Class City didn't go anywhere. Greater Gateway Alliance didn't go anywhere. StL Strong didn't go anywhere. And the Muni League punted after the Ferguson Commission report which was their moment to take the lead.
Their could be competing amendments on the ballot in 2020. Will be interesting.
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/gov ... fc92e.html
"Things have already happened; county municipalities have voted themselves out of existence, the city passed a board reduction, municipalities have merged. This isn't speculation. It's history. Small steps, but real. And evidence that more steps are possible. "
Two disincorporations and one merger this decade. <1% of the city-county population. A city ward reduction plan that still hasn't happened and an effort to stop it, voter support be damned. The pace is woefully inadequate.
"There's political and popular support for many things independent of the plan: city reentry into the county,"
The Muni League endorsed this and has done nothing to make it happen. And if it were on the ballot we'd hear the same arguments about crime, racial dog whistles, taking on debt, loosing black elected officials, city is a mess, city is mismanaged, I got mine etc, with much less to show for the effort to get it passed.
"court reform,"
The fragments have been fighting this since day one and the pace has been woefully inadequate
and policing reform,
The fragments have been fighting this since day one.
"Many of the efficiencies of the plan could be realized without it: police department consolidations"
Certainly munis can do this, but they aren't at a pace that's necessary. What's the incentive when you can leverage fragmentation to get non-residents to pay for your PD?
" and tax pools, (Which, by the way, has also already been done. More than once. "
The legislature set up the sales tax pool, no local vote. It only affects a little bit of sales taxes, and to placate fragments, we have this point-of-sale/pool city system.
"If you want to support this plan kindly tell me why it's a good idea. Argue the merits. There are plenty of obvious flaws: How do we create a budget when a sizable part of the revenue is gone?"
You stop spending money on 55 police HQs. Don't pay 55 police chiefs. Don't run 81 courts. Buy stuff in bulk. Let employees retire and don't replace them. Don't let developers leverage fragmentation and issue fewer or less generous TIFs, tax abatements, and other incentives. Increase land productivity, or at least stop mandating it be low-productivity.
"Why is it necessary to make an end run around local voters?
To have one PD takes an amendment. It's unclear whether a BoF plan can and can't do to munis. It'll get sued to death. Having a local vote after the amendment seems reasonable to me. The author of the RFT piece says the amendment could require local support at the same time. I didn't realize that was possible.
"Why should wealthy county municipalities maintain their independence while the city itself would not?
Because BT listened and compromised. I guess it's possible, but seems awkward to have Metro City based downtown and then also the StL municipal district. Regardless areas can still set up SBDs and CIDs and TDDs to tax and spend hyper-locally, just like we already do within munis.
"Why should school boundaries remain fixed and off the consolidation table
That would take another amendment and would be an even harder sell than Metro City. School district could merge among themselves, but they aren't. The only one that happened lately was Wellston into Normandy which was done by the State Board of Education, no legislature vote, not local vote. Remember munis use price floors on housing and transportation not only to keep people out of the muni, but more importantly to keep them out of the school district. Then they can leverage fragmentation to access cheap labor living elsewhere to staff their sales tax golden geese so their munis don't need property taxes and thus can put more property tax into their schools.
"when taxes are on the consolidation table?
School taxes aren't, just municipal, because it's a plan that tackles municipal fragmentation.
Why should services and obligations remain tied to their present districts when many of those same districts would lose local control of their revenue structure?
Not all services and obligations. Their infrastructure liabilities, PD, Courts become Metro City's. The others remain because BT listened and compromised. Munis loose their sales taxes because of the TIF wars. EW Gateway pointed out how feckless it has been long ago. Of course it doesn't take this amendment to accomplish TIF reform, nor even a MOLeg bill, the munis could agree not to shift taxable sales around. That would be real leadership on the part of the Muni League, but nothing, the incentive patterns set up by fragmentation are too seductive.
