Funding

When asked to cite the most pressing challenge for transit in this metro—or any metro, for that matter—Frank Weatherford volunteered the word of the day: Funding.

“The way we attract people back to Kansas City is to provide amenities you don’t get in Johnson County,” said Kite Singleton. He believes that transit is one such amenity and any city needs a strategy to kick-start the funding process. For Kansas City, that strategy has been the Transportation Development District.

Residents who live within a section of Downtown have already approved the creation of the TDD by a substantial margin. To fund the proposed Downtown streetcar line will take both a yes vote on a
1 percent sales tax increase and the appr-
oval of a special assessment tax on residential, commercial, and municipal property within the taxing district. The results of this election will be known in December.

“When there was a vote for a tax increase to provide some sort of rail transit throughout the community, it failed citywide,” said Sherri McIntyre. “In those precincts, where we are building our starter line, those precinct areas have always approved the tax.”

Kite Singleton is confident that the December vote will be positive: “I think it will go forward from there to studying how we get to the Plaza with that streetcar and how to cross the river to North Kansas City.”

David Warm argued that some of the projected increased value of property within the transit district can be harnessed and put into supporting the project. “If we can do this wisely,” said Warm, “if we can do it systemically and do it with the right public-private partnership tools in place, we can capture that private investment.” He conceded that area governments need to think more deeply about the sources of revenue, the benefits that accrue, and our ability to capture those benefits, monetize them and put them back into the system.

Michael Collins argued that by adding density to the city through transit, the region becomes more attractive to wholesale distributors. If successful, this strategy can attract investors both nationally and internationally.

“Transportation has to be a national focus,” said Jim Harpool. Although ad-mitting that local governments needed
to take the initiative, he argued for a shifting of national priorities.

McIntyre questioned whether we were investing too much on infrastructure projects on the outskirts of the community, thus shortchanging those in the city’s heart. “If you could imagine even 50,000 people living in the Downtown area where we’re putting in a streetcar,” she asked, “how many more people can afford to help pay for the infrastructure improvements that we need in our community?”

One problem that Warm sees throughout the financial world is the absence of real innovation. Individual states are experimenting with infrastructure banks and other kinds of mechanisms that use public guarantees, support systems, and private capital to provide resources for public-private ventures to make infrastructure improvements. “I think there’s promise in that if we work a little bit on it,” said Warm.

Jim Bowers, a partner with the law firm of White Goss Bowers March Schulte & Weisenfels, sees real opportunity in developing public-private partnerships between governments and developers. They would allow infrastructure to be built that otherwise wouldn’t be built.

Michael Collins likewise sees the need for innovative public-private partnerships. We actually put [the deal] together for them, and we get out of the way,” said Collins. “That’s our motto. We want to foster that ability. We don’t want to take it over.”