Saw Lewis Reed mention on twitter that there will be 3 public meetings in April regarding a citywide $150m CI bond issue, does anyone have any info on this?
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Probably. I hope it's not an April Fool's prank. I will throw this computer out the window if it is.
It better be larger than the current proposal if it is gonna be a streetcar or it will not get citywide support. With that said I personally think St. Louis would benefit more from a streetcar system than KC, especially if it is integrated with metro. Imagine if metro decided to turn the busiest bus routes in the city to streetcars. With a regional taxing authority (something KC lacks), we could build out a pretty good system within a few years. It would be awesome if the city is bonding out the money for its match in a potential (city only) N-S Metrolink line and plans to use state and federal money for the rest.urban_dilettante wrote:i'm gonna guess streetcar?
My guess is a tax to improve streets, sidewalks, public buildings. I would guess if the city passed a $150,000,000 bond issue it could potentially attract 3 to 4 times as much federal or state money. So we could be looking at $450,000,000 to $600,000,000 in money.
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As an already heavily taxed city resident, I am tiring of tax increases on residents.
The property taxes on my house are a fortune.
Sales taxes are in excess of 8%
The earnings tax takes a cut out of every paycheck.
And removing trash is now an added charge to our utility bills compared to when we first moved in.
Meanwhile, the entire region benefits from an improved city of St. Louis.
Time to expand the tax base.
I say we use some reverse psychology.
City residents ought to hold the region hostage to a declining city until such time that the region's residents step up to support the heart of the region. Until that time, no more tax increases on city residents.
The property taxes on my house are a fortune.
Sales taxes are in excess of 8%
The earnings tax takes a cut out of every paycheck.
And removing trash is now an added charge to our utility bills compared to when we first moved in.
Meanwhile, the entire region benefits from an improved city of St. Louis.
Time to expand the tax base.
I say we use some reverse psychology.
City residents ought to hold the region hostage to a declining city until such time that the region's residents step up to support the heart of the region. Until that time, no more tax increases on city residents.
Northside Neighbor wrote:As an already heavily taxed city resident, I am tiring of tax increases on residents.
The property taxes on my house are a fortune.
Sales taxes are in excess of 8%
The earnings tax takes a cut out of every paycheck.
And removing trash is now an added charge to our utility bills compared to when we first moved in.
Meanwhile, the entire region benefits from an improved city of St. Louis.
Time to expand the tax base.
I say we use some reverse psychology.
City residents ought to hold the region hostage to a declining city until such time that the region's residents step up to support the heart of the region. Until that time, no more tax increases on city residents.
I think that's already been tried for the past 50 years and it didn't work. The city should take the lead on a lot of these issues and be a model for the region, not a burden.
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Stadium? Streetcar? Streets? Sidewalks? I'm not sure, but I'm gonna go with it starting with an 'S'.
Its not a streetcar, at all.
Its a very long list of mostly small items. New roofs on firehouses. New firetrucks. New breathing apparatus for firefighters. New locks in the jails. Snow plows. Upgrading computer system for the assessor's office. Some arterial street re-surfacing. A few bridges. Repairs to the City Hall roof. A lot of stuff like that, a very long list. Not flashy, but essential stuff for city employees to be able to do their jobs. Last general obligation bond issue was 1998 I believe. Most of the stuff broadly falls under the "public safety" umbrella, but not all of it. I'd expect the list of stuff will be circulating soon so people can see all the details.
Scott Ogilvie
24th Ward Alderman
Its a very long list of mostly small items. New roofs on firehouses. New firetrucks. New breathing apparatus for firefighters. New locks in the jails. Snow plows. Upgrading computer system for the assessor's office. Some arterial street re-surfacing. A few bridges. Repairs to the City Hall roof. A lot of stuff like that, a very long list. Not flashy, but essential stuff for city employees to be able to do their jobs. Last general obligation bond issue was 1998 I believe. Most of the stuff broadly falls under the "public safety" umbrella, but not all of it. I'd expect the list of stuff will be circulating soon so people can see all the details.
Scott Ogilvie
24th Ward Alderman
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^ ah, good 'ole stuff... it does begin with an 'S'!
Small point, but if the city were in the county we wouldn't need to do this, depending on the state of the County Assessor's IT resources.ward24 wrote:Upgrading computer system for the assessor's office.
Least sexy way to spend $150M. Seems like a lot of money for that stuff. Is there a breakdown of the projects?ward24 wrote:Its not a streetcar, at all.
Its a very long list of mostly small items. New roofs on firehouses. New firetrucks. New breathing apparatus for firefighters. New locks in the jails. Snow plows. Upgrading computer system for the assessor's office. Some arterial street re-surfacing. A few bridges. Repairs to the City Hall roof. A lot of stuff like that, a very long list. Not flashy, but essential stuff for city employees to be able to do their jobs. Last general obligation bond issue was 1998 I believe. Most of the stuff broadly falls under the "public safety" umbrella, but not all of it. I'd expect the list of stuff will be circulating soon so people can see all the details.
Scott Ogilvie
24th Ward Alderman
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In other words, each city department gets something from it and so they're all incentivized to say "wow I should vote for this" and tell their friends and neighbors.
Right, most of this stuff is definitely not sexy. Nevertheless, most / all of it is essential if we want to keep city services running. A general obligation bond issue is a pretty typical way to pay for capital expenses, especially when interest rates are low. There is a very long list of projects that details the items and costs down to each vehicle purchased, and that's what those meetings will be for. The list will be available soon I would imagine. Its been vetted over the last few months. The process is driven mostly by department heads looking at their operating requirements and the physical conditions of the properties. If your building's roof is 40 years old, and the air conditioner is 50 years old, you know you've got to replace that stuff or the rest of the building will begin to deteriorate. There are a lot of old systems in city facilities. The bond issue is sized based on what major credit ratings firms think the city can handle in terms of new debt without changing our credit rating. We are retiring other old debt at roughly the same time, meaning this doesn't add that much to the total mortgage the city is carrying.
While most of the stuff is not flashy, there are benefits to residents. If the trash truck is new, and not 15 years old, you are way more likely not to miss your trash pick-up because of a break down, etc. There are other things in the bond issue that people will recognize as preparing the city for the future. One is upgrading the police departments ability to use existing camera networks across the city to gather evidence after a crime is committed - meaning we'll finally have police actually with the ability to actually monitor some of the camera systems, which is something many people have been asking for. I'm happy to go over everything in the list once its published if people have questions.
Unfortunately there is a difference between $300M and $160M in debt, meaning we aren't going to finance a streetcar this way, this time. There are some substantial lane diets on some overly wide arterials though.
Scott Ogilvie
24th Ward Alderman
While most of the stuff is not flashy, there are benefits to residents. If the trash truck is new, and not 15 years old, you are way more likely not to miss your trash pick-up because of a break down, etc. There are other things in the bond issue that people will recognize as preparing the city for the future. One is upgrading the police departments ability to use existing camera networks across the city to gather evidence after a crime is committed - meaning we'll finally have police actually with the ability to actually monitor some of the camera systems, which is something many people have been asking for. I'm happy to go over everything in the list once its published if people have questions.
Unfortunately there is a difference between $300M and $160M in debt, meaning we aren't going to finance a streetcar this way, this time. There are some substantial lane diets on some overly wide arterials though.
Scott Ogilvie
24th Ward Alderman
Thanks for the info. To your last point, are you saying the lane diets are part of this particular bond issue? That would be great.
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there are many streets that need a diet thats for sure sprucing up as well
I vote for 10 lane kingshighway from forest park to ChippewaBrickCity4470 wrote:there are many streets that need a diet thats for sure sprucing up as well
Main road / lane diet / streetscape projects are West Florissant (City limit to I - 70) and Goodfellow (City limit to Natural Bridge). There are also several bridge replacements - maybe of note being the bridge deck of the Compton bridge, which is currently terrible for everyone, cars, bikes, peds. More details coming.
Scott Ogilvie
24th Ward Alderman
Scott Ogilvie
24th Ward Alderman
Is the whole bridge getting replaced at Compton? Bradley said a while back that the sub structure was replaced recently...I imagine it's just a new deck
The Compton bridge substructure was rehabbed just before the Grand bridge was rebuilt. The deck was not done, as anyone that has driven over it in the last decade can tell you.
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Is there anyway you can change that name Goodfellow? It's god awfully atrocious for a street name and every time i drive pass it i just think of the ghetto...
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Huh? Anyone familiar with St. Louis knows the name of city streets. Why in the world would "Goodfellow" stir images when there are hundreds of other city streets to pick from?
Yes, many time I've seen slu students run across it and almost fall into trafficMattnSTL wrote:The Compton bridge substructure was rehabbed just before the Grand bridge was rebuilt. The deck was not done, as anyone that has driven over it in the last decade can tell you.