No ruling yet on Chastain transit plan, which will miss the August ballot

No decision came Monday morning in a court hearing on a Kansas City transit proposal by Clay Chastain.

Another hearing is scheduled for June 12, which comes after next week’s deadline to get on the August ballot.

Chastain allies said that was fine with them. The November election, when voter turnout is higher, might work better for their cause anyway.

While the city gears up for its own Aug. 5 streetcar election, Chastain has been trying to get his 2011 initiative petition on a Kansas City election ballot.

Chastain proposes a 3/8-cent citywide sales tax for 25 years to pay partial costs of a 22-mile light-rail line, a 19-mile commuter rail line and an 8 1/2 mile streetcar line. The City Council had declined to put it on an election ballot, arguing that the Chastain proposal didn't raise enough money to cover the costs and therefore was unconstitutional.

But in February the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Chastain’s plan was not unconstitutional: It did not require the city to actually build the project, but only sought to raise money through two taxes.

The high court expressed no opinion on the merits of Chastain’s proposal. Among the remaining issues is the ballot language, if circuit court Judge Sandra Midkiff clears the way for placing the issue before the voters.

The city argues that it would be under no obligation to use the money to fund Chastain’s plan, were voters to approve it. But his attorney told Midkiff that defying the voters’ intent would be “a political decision” with consequences.

It was a previous Council that declined to implement the only one of Chastain’s several ballot issues to win voter support.

That 2006 plan called for no tax increase. Instead it would have shifted revenue from an existing bus tax. The council killed the plan, in part, because that funding change would have hurt the bus system.

This story was originally published May 19, 2014 at 1:01 PM with the headline "No ruling yet on Chastain transit plan, which will miss the August ballot."